When One Door Closes
by HilaryHilary
Summary: When Haley James meets a familiar character from her past on a train, she finds herself unable to confront everything that changed her. When the journey ends, Haley discovers that she wished nothing had ever changed with Nathan, herself, and Tree Hill.
1. Prologue

When One Door Closes

Prologue

"_Last call for train 438 to New York City!" _came the call through the intercom system. Haley snapped her cell phone closed, grabbed the handle of her pull along suitcase and hurried to the platform.

She shivered when her eyes, roaming around the train station, saw the back of a familiar head. The head, the name, the existence of the person had haunted her when she'd made the decision to travel back to New York-the place she'd seen him last. The place where her dreams had been made, and in turn had fallen apart.

Haley forced herself not to dwell and began walking quickly along the marble floor from the first class lounge. She smiled falsely at the attendant who carried her bag over the short staircase up to the train, and placed it on the rack for her. She gripped her carry on bag harder, already desiring that the three day trip would be over so she could be back in New York with all she'd grown accustomed to.

She dropped down into the wide, comfortable window seat and stared out into the bustling station. The second-class passengers hurried into the train, not helped by helpful attendants. She was served coffee while she waited for the train to move, and rearranged her blonde hair to cover her well-known face.

Haley was already regretting her decision not to fly because of her fear of airplanes. She'd be stuck there for days, in the same chair, in the rocking train, drinking bad coffee.

Depressed by the view through the window, she reached into her bag and pulled out a paperback book, which she began to read while the passengers steamed into the first class car, glancing at her while they passed and glancing away while they didn't recognize her. She forced herself to get immersed in the murder mystery she was reading, so different from her life which had become unexpectedly so mundane.

Haley looked up when she noticed the a presence standing stock still in the corner of her eye. She turned her head ninety degrees, praying that her assumption had been incorrect.

White, high top sneakers were topped by a pair of worn, comfortable looking blue jeans. A white wife beater, topped by an unbuttoned dark blue dress shirt surrounded a body as familiar as her own, one she hadn't seen in years.

He stared back, taking in her highlighted blonde hair, the pink gloss on her lips, the light mascara on her eyelashes, the cover up under her eyes, hiding the dark shadows that had become a permanent part of her. The small jean jacket that was over top a tank top that skimmed low over her breasts. Her perfectly manicured nails, her demurely crossed legs. All in all, a completely different person than the one he remembered her as.

"Haley," he said at last, curtly and completely detached. She forced herself not to gasp at his all-grown-up voice, his serious face.

He stared a moment longer at her, hoping she'd drop some polite greeting, make the silence, or the presence, bearable. She couldn't manage it. She could only mange one word:

"_Lucas?"_


	2. Maybe Later

Chapter Two: Maybe Later

Lucas paused by the seat for an infinite moment. Haley's mind quickened, searching for small talk, for topics for the two to touch on in the next three days that had nothing to do with Nathan or Chris, or her.

He finally sat down. She noticed immediately how much of the chair his body took up, more muscular than when she'd seen him last. She turned hesitantly to him, desiring that he'd put the past behind him, a task she'd failed miserably at.

"So, how are you doing?" she asked, folding down the page she'd stopped at and closing her book.

"Fine," he said, placing his bag under his seat and stretching out his legs in front of him.

"And how are…" she began. She fell silent as he put his earphones in his ears and stared ahead, ignoring the announcement coming through the intercom.

Haley fiddled with her hands in her lap, contemplating her options. Lucas obviously didn't want to talk. However, three days was an awfully long time. He'd have to stop listening to his music eventually. They had been best friends once. Haley was haunted by the possibility that they could be again.

Hours later, when the TV dinner style lunch arrived, and Lucas pulled out his earphones. Haley forced herself to wait a few moments, as to not seem overly eager, before launching into her small talk.

"So, how's everyone in Tree Hill?" she asked pleasantly, genuinely curious.

"They're good," said Lucas, lifting his sandwich to his mouth.

"Come on, give me details. I've missed it," she said lightly.

"Nothing was stopping you," he said rudely.

"Plenty of things stopped me, and you know that," she said, refusing to rise to her anger.

"Fine. Peyton and Jake got married a few years ago, and they have a son, Ben. Brooke works in PR, and is pretty successful, I guess," he began.

"And are you with her?" asked Haley, eager to hear of what had become of their high school romantic entanglements.

"No," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because she was my high school love. It doesn't make her my forever love, I guess," explained Lucas. Haley nodded, silently agreeing wholeheartedly.

"And Nathan?" she asked, staring down at her hands, knotted anxiously together.

"Better before his heart was broken," said Lucas dismissively. Haley sighed inwardly.

"So Peyton and Jake got married. Was it nice?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was okay. I was best man, Nathan was a groomsman, Brooke was Maid of Honour and Jenny was flower girl," explained Luke. Haley felt herself feeling gratified beyond words.

"Jenny's all grown up, I guess?" she asked.

"Something like that. About eleven now. Really into guys," said Lucas. Haley guiltily enjoyed a laugh at the expense of the small girl.

"Like Brooke?"

"Sort of. Less dangerous. A really nice kid all around. Sometimes Nathan and I take her down to shoot hoops, and she likes that," said Lucas, clearly fond of her.

"So you two are still playing all the time?" Lucas raised an eyebrow at her, and she instantly blushed without knowing exactly why.

"We're both on the New York Knicks. Do you live in a hole?" he asked, suddenly playful.

"Sorry, never been my thing. Is it fun?" She didn't press him when he simply shrugged.

"Does Nathan like it?" she asked. She gasped when he turned on her, face red and temples throbbing.

"Don't pretend like you care, Haley. I know you don't care. The whole world knows you don't care, and they don't even care that you don't care," he said coolly, obviously holding back his rage.

"I do care. We were married," she murmured.

"Oh, so you remember? Did you even love him?"

"Of course I loved him! Don't lie to yourself Luke, you saw how I loved him! It was too much! I was sixteen!"

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. That your age mattered. Maybe you were sixteen, but you're twenty-five now," he said.

"Did it ever occur to you that it takes two to break up a marriage?" she asked harshly.

"Yeah. It took two. You and Chris. Speaking of which, how's he doing?" demanded Lucas. Haley rolled her eyes impatiently, amazed at how badly a simple conversation could go.

"He's fine. We speak fairly regularly, mostly on the phone. But don't you remember how I came back, and he turned me down. Turned me down for that game that has always run his life," said Haley, pain overcoming her. Lucas rolled his eyes.

"After you left. The second time, by the way, you left without saying anything to me," he said.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It was always one or the other of us. It could never be both with you," he said, plugging back in his earphones.

Haley willed herself not to cry as she stared out into the countryside, remembering her lost life. Her career had picked up only months after Nathan had left her for High Flyers, when she'd offered herself to him and he'd turned her down. She'd gone back to New York, to the comforting presence of her friend Chris, and had never looked back. She'd though back, plenty of times, but never set so much as a foot in the vicinity of Tree Hill, North Carolina.

She fell deeper unto guilt when she thought about Brooke and Lucas. When she'd first left, she'd sensed Lucas falling again for the enigmatic Brooke, already beginning to change. When she'd left the second time, only one thing had stopped her from seeing her best friend: the image of him silhouetted in his window, hunched over. Crying. Over Brooke Davis, who only a year previously had never acknowledged his existence. Haley couldn't bring herself to help him. She'd never understood why. She'd never be able to explain.

Her thoughts, gradually an inevitably, drift to Nathan, as they do to often. It's been so long that she doesn't know if she still loves him, loves the him of nine years previously, or loves a shadow, the perfect male built up in her mind. Part of her hopes desperately that he's happy. After all, it's not like she's going back to New York to see him. In fact, every time she does go back, she dreads seeing him. Manhattan is an island of many millions, but sometimes it seems like you're constantly liable to run into those you wish you'd never have to see again.

Haley started as she began to doze off, her cheek pressed against the glass. She glanced over at Lucas, immersed in an ancient book and his I-pod.

"_Later,"_ she promised herself. "_Later, when I'm awake, we'll talk and make friends again."_


	3. What Home Really Is

Chapter Three: Where Home Really Is

Brooke smiled as her best friend's four year old son answered the door to her apartment, clad in a pair of overalls, his thumb in his mouth, his brown hair mussed.

"Hey Ben. Where's your Mom?" she asked, refusing to speak 'cutesy' to him and refer to Peyton as his 'mommy', something which had annoyed her thoroughly when she was young.

"She's not here," he said, letting Brooke step into the apartment and carefully removing his thumb from his mouth, wiping it on his Oshkosh overalls.

"Is Jenny looking after you?" asked Brooke, casting a glance around the apartment, painted and decorated in Peyton's original style.

"No, Daddy's here," explained Ben. He stuck out his hand to Brooke and smiling she took it, allowing the small boy to lead her to his father.

"Hello Jake," she said, stepping into his office while Ben ran off down the hall, his tiny feet making small thumping noises on the wood floor.

"Oh, hey Brooke. What's up?" he asked. Brooke stifled a laugh. At twenty-five, she was merely a more sophisticated version of her teenage self-designer clothing, admission to all the right parties because of her influential occupation. And Jake, who had made big money as a musician when he had been younger, was a mostly stay at home Daddy who did occasional work for magazines. Dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and bare feet, he was definitely the same Jake Jagielski.

"So where's Jenny and Peyton?" asked Brooke, hopping up to sit on a short filing cabinet and crossing her long, slim legs. She smiled, glad for her friend, when he didn't even glance at them or the cleavage exposed in her shirt.

"Jenny's actually in Tree Hill, visiting her grandparents for a couple of days, and Peyton is out talking with some guys who want to displayed her work in their gallery," explained Jake, leaning back in his computer chair, stretching his arms high over his head and yawning. Peyton had achieved minor fame through her art after her marriage.

"That's so awesome. Remember those comic strips she used to do, and now she's practically world famous? Oh, Jen's going to be back in time for Lucas, right?" asked Brooke worriedly.

"Of course, she's looking forward to the reunion. She likes you guys," said Jake, his eyes crinkling into a smile. In five days, the Jagielskis, the Scott brothers, and Brooke planned to have a reunion of sorts in Jake and Peyton's apartment. Nathan, Lucas and Brooke moved around so often that they were forced to keep in touch through emails instead of in person.

"Yeah. Me because I tell her about guys, and Lucas because he always buys her things," joked Brooke, slightly jealous under the surface that Jenny naturally liked Nathan, without him having to encourage it. She corrected herself quickly: everyone knew that Nathan needed more happiness in his empty life.

"And because she loves you," consoled Jake.

"I still can't believe she's old enough to go all the way to Tree Hill by herself," said Brooke.

"She's not. She should have an armed escort," said Jake staunchly.

"I'm guessing it was Peyton's idea?" asked Brooke, smiling her traditional twikle eyed dimple smile.

"What was my idea?" asked Peyton Jagielski, coming into the room.

"Oh, sending your daughter to die on a first class flight to Tree Hill. How could you, Blondie?" admonished Brooke, poking fun of Peyton's curly locks, which had grown back to their natural brown after she'd stopped dying them in high school.

"Ah, he's informed you then? She'll be fine," said Peyton.

"Sure, sure. So when's Luke getting here?" asked Jake, taking his wife's hand and pulling her onto his lap.

"In about two days. Why on Earth would he choose the train over a nice short flight?" wondered Brooke.

"The flight from San Fransisco to here is not exactly short Brooke," said Peyton.

"Definitely shorter than a freaking train. He'll probably encounter like…" Brooke cut herself off, pondering for a moment.

"What, old people who take the train?" teased Peyton.

"Or arsonists, you never know!" shot back Brooke.

"You sound quite worried about him," said Jake, trying to keep emotion out of his tone. Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Please, Mr. Peyton. Not in a million years. Which, by the way, is how long ago that was," said Brooke, smiling.

"Fine. How is your love life then?" asked Peyton. The two of them were surprised when Brooke, ever immodest, spared an embarrassed glance at Jake before launching into a tirade.

"Like, nonexistent. Guys are totally scared of girls more successful than them. Except for you of course, Jake. Tell them your salary, or your job, or you who work for and they're out of their! Guys want like stewardesses. So unfair. And anyway, there's not one I'd even consider sleeping with at my office," moaned Brooke. Peyton hid a smile.

"Is there anyone you'd consider doing more with?" asked Peyton, amazed yet unsurprised that at twenty-five, Brooke still showed no inclination to 'settle down'.

"Please. I'll leave domestic bliss up to you guys," said Brooke, glancing over at them, cuddling in his computer chair.

"Thanks. Now, do you want to stay for dinner?" asked Peyton.

"God, though you'd never ask. Yes, I'd like that. What are you making?" asked Brooke.

"Chinese takout. Take it or leave it," said Peyton. Brooke grinned, glad that despite her years of marriage, her brown hair, her steady, stable husband, she was still Peyton underneath.

"I'll take it. Get those sweet n sour noodles. I love those," said Brooke, leading her best friend out of her office and toward the kitchen phone.

"So, how are you feeling?" asked Brooke, with forced casualty, browsing through a takeout menu.

"Fine," said Peyton.

"Not like… nauseous or anything?" she asked, keeping up her nonchalant tone.

"Perfect," said Peyton, the corners of her mouth twitching as she dialed the phone.

"No weird cravings… moodswings…" continued Brooke suggestively. Peyton rolled her eyes, hiding her amazement at how well her friend knew her, how incredibly perceptive she was.

"I'm good. But you're very sweet. Do you mind setting the table?" asked Peyton, sweetness dripping from her voice.

"Not at all," said Brooke airily, easily locating the placemats in a drawer before grabbing a handful of cutlery. She was familiar with the Jagielski house, having spent so much time there.

Half an hour later, the four of them sat around the square table, eating their food out of the cardboard boxes, attempting to make conversation that could be followed by four year olds and twenty-five year olds alike.

"So, any hot parties you have to do anytime soon?" asked Peyton, biting an eggroll.

"Yeah. That guy from 'House of Wax' is having a birthday, but it's annoyingly low key. If you were a Hollywood star, wouldn't you have a big birthday?" asked Brooke.

"I would never be a Hollywood star," said Peyton.

"Yeah well I didn't mean you. Bennie here could be a Hollywood star," said Brooke, fondly ruffling her godson's hair.

"Not for your life. Jenny, however…" said Peyton, merely to provoke her husband.

"That's not very nice," said Jake. Peyton laughed, and leaned across a corner of the wooden table to kiss him lightly.

Brooke's smile fell, but only for a moment. She was happy for Peyton. Completely. She'd hoped almost as hard as Peyton had that everything that had happened would happen.

But she couldn't help wishing that it would happen for her, as well.

_Author's note: Here's a spoiler: next chapter revolves around a scene that could be in 'Sex and the City', but not on 'Friends' or even 'One Tree Hill'. Get it?_


	4. What Remains

Chapter Four

Haley cringed as she peeled off her shirt, disgusted at how she felt at having to go so long without showering, at how much of her coffee ended up in her lap.

She turned away from the mirror as she discarded her shirt on the floor, grabbing a new one to change in to.

Breathing deeply, Haley paused as the air from the vents hit her smooth, exposed skin. If she closed her eyes tightly, blocked out the rocking of the train, she could almost believe she was outside. At the river court, maybe. Or on the roof of Karen's Café. Or maybe even on the balcony of her and Nathan's apartment.

This last image made her snap her eyes open. Shaking her head to clear it, and replacing the faded memory with a more recent one, she unhooked her black, strapless Victoria Secret bra and let it fall to the floor.

A gasp escaped her lips as the bathroom door slid open. Her wild eyes met shocked brown ones. Eyes she'd seen all her life: Lucas'.

Haley made no move to cover herself up, and his eyes slid inevitably down to her exposed breasts. He swiftly and silently admired their size, their fullness.

In his mind, two Haley's crashed together. The Haley he'd always known: quirky, supportive, innocent, naïve, virginal Haley. And the one before him was a woman. A woman who'd experienced heartbreak, loss and defeat beyond all reason. A woman who was most certainly not innocent, naïve or remotely virginal.

The two Haley's struggled within him, until at last the latter broke free and claimed her place: the woman. Silently and immediately he accepted that Haley was a human, like all other, had faults like all others.

Slowly she moved her hands to cover herself up, and they snapped back into reality.

"I forgot to lock the door," she said simply. He nodded, admiring the blonde hair flowing over her naked shoulders. Suddenly and inexplicably, he hardened.

"I should have knocked," he said. Haley noted again that they were like strangers, but thought for the first time that it could be a good thing: they could get to know each other again, without the failed expectations of the past.

"Most people don't have to, because most other people can figure out how to lock a door," said Haley. Lucas stared for a moment before breaking into an appreciative glance.

"Especially when it turns on the light. See?" he asked, clicking the lock shut. As he'd said, the lights above the mirror flamed as brightly as her cheeks.

"Aren't you the smart one. Now turn around," she said firmly, clicking closed a different bra, and pulling on a shirt over top.

The two of them walked back down the alley, back to their chairs. Lucas hesitated for only a moment before shutting down his I-pod and turning slightly in his chair to face her.

"So, mom and Keith are together," he said. Haley girlishly clapped her hands. Luke knew that if she had been able, she could have hoped.

"Oh, they always had to. That's great. And what about Dan and Deb?" she asked. She appreciated Deb, knowing that she'd tried to some degree to make her son happy.

"They split for good. Dan's off in Florida somewhere living the life, and Deb's still at the Café with Mom. Everyone once in a while I go back there and hang out. It's still the same," said Lucas fondly.

"Yeah, I'd imagine. And Whitey?" asked Haley, dreading the answer.

"He's about seventy-five now. He's doing okay, considering," said Lucas. "Now tell me about your life."

Haley smiled, glad that despite what they'd had to go through to get there, their relationship was slowly drifting back.

"As you've probably heard, or perhaps blocked out, I'm not so much into my career anymore. I've been doing a lot of volunteer work. Like at the foster care centre, like I did when we were kids. And I perform for them sometimes," said Haley.

"That's pretty neat. Ever taken one in?" he asked.

"I actually applied fairly recently, and I'm pretty much certain that I'll pass, so I'll probably start soon," said Haley. Lucas smiled, proud for the first time in years of how she'd turned out.

"So financially you're..?"

"Much like you, I'd think. Yeah, I live in this huge penthouse. Great view of the city and the park. It's great," said Haley.

"Sounds great. You have a roof?" he asked.

"Yeah, but no water balloons. Frowned upon if they fall over the edge," said Haley, shrugging innocently.

"And are you… seeing anyone?" asked Lucas awkwardly.

"No, not right now. Just broke up with someone. So seeing as Peyton's married and Brooke is clearly in the just friend's zone, where are you?" asked Haley.

"Not in high school for one. We don't all end up with our high schools loves, Hales," he said, looking deeply into her eyes for a moment. Haley immediately got two messages from him, both extremely positive ones: that acknowledging that everyone didn't end up with who they'd started out with said that Luke understood that Haley was sorry, and it was a million years ago, and he forgave her.

By calling her Hales, he seemed to be telling her that he was there for her, like he always was. That he loved her like he always did.

"Yeah," she whispered. She too understood, as she hadn't in high school (as no had in high school) that high school was a prelude to the real world in which you had real heartbreak, real loss, and real love.

But Haley wasn't inclined to believe that last theory. She knew that despite their age, their differences and everything that had torn them apart, what Nathan and her had had had been real. Was still real? Haley was determined to find out.

"Do you ever think about him?" asked Lucas suddenly. Haley looked up slowly, lazily raising her eyes to his.

"All the time. We always think about the great loves of our lives, and he was the first," said Haley.

"And not the only?" asked Lucas, searching for answers to questions he'd asked almost a decade previously.

"I hope not. I don't want to be lonely anymore," she said, protectively tucking her arms around herself.

"Hey. You don't have to be. You have me. You have us," said Lucas, lifting up her chin with one finger.

"I don't. This is just a weird twist of fate, we both know that. And people who I broke the hearts of won't accept me again. I blew it," said Haley.

"Hey, what happened to you? Since when do you give up so easy?" asked Lucas gently, pushing a strand of hair away from the face that was beginning to be disturbed by tears.

"Since I grew up, I guess. There's a cushion blocking out the real world in Tree Hill, but sooner or later you have to step out," said Haley.

"Doesn't mean you can never step back," he said. Throwing away his resolve, he reached forward and took the petite woman in his arms, the armrest between them. His body immediately recognized hers, once such a frequent fixture in his life. He squeezed her tightly, recalling suddenly the childhood they'd had together, what all their time apart had done to him. How it had changed him.

Haley sobbed into Lucas' shoulder, sobbing ten years away. She cried for all the time she hadn't cried. She cried for Nathan, for Peyton, for Brooke, for all the foster children she wanted to take care of. For Karen who'd been her mother, for Lucas who'd been her brother, for her career which had never truly made her happy. She cried for the life she could have had, and had lost.

She was silenced ten minutes later, drained yet feeling pure, and oddly uncontaminated.

He reluctantly released her, afraid it was for the last time. He remembered all the hugs they'd had, the platonomy of them: the time in the graveyard, when he'd told her he was leaving, that time in her hotel room, when they'd parted for good, all those congratulatory hugs on the rooftop. They'd been nothing back then, just arms about each other, love and good wishes packed into a gesture.

"Cheer up Haley-bub," he said, affectionately dropping her childhood nickname.

"Oh, you made me think of Taylor. Haven't talked to her in years. However, I'm pretty sure that that's one relationship I can change," said Haley thoughtfully.

Lucas couldn't help staring at her for a moment. When he'd meet her, she'd been a tomboy, brown locks restrained into pigtail braids, topped by a backward baseball cap, completing the tough talking six year old. She'd always been his best friend but it had never occurred to him that she'd set the world on fire, or someone's heart.


	5. We Can Work It Out

Chapter Five: We Can Work It Out

Lucas smiled when he awoke with Haley's blonde head resting on his broad shoulder, his head resting on hers, fitting into each other perfectly. For him, it was a surprisingly familiar feeling. Back in the days of "us against the world" they'd had sleepovers, like siblings or girlfriends would. Even when they'd reached puberty, as the walls should have gone up between them, they hadn't. Haley and Lucas had continued to hug, physically comfort each other without romantic feelings arising.

* * *

The hairs on the nape of Haley's neck stiffened when she felt an unfamiliar presence on her neck and head: the shoulder and head of a man. She hadn't been completely abstinent in the last years, but hadn't had many relations that had lasted in staying the night, hadn't often tucked her head into the perfect space on a man's shoulder. She'd forgotten how nice it was.

She'd never felt guiltier than she did when she connected the feeling to Nathan, and realized it had been Lucas.

Lucas' neck snapped straight when Haley yanked herself out of the nook on his shoulder and sat up straight, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Something wrong?" asked Lucas, feeling guilty about missing the lemony scent of her shampoo. She was Haley. His Haley, but not in that way. Never could Lucas be with his brother's wife.

"Sorry about that, it's just so hard to sleep in these stupid seats," she said, laughing off the incident.

"That's alright. And hey, that was the last time. We're getting there later today, remember?" asked Lucas. Haley nodded, comprehension growing. In many ways, the train was an alternate reality, a fast moving imitation of real life, where anything could happen. She knew what would happen to their relationship the moment they stepped into the crowded, bustling station: despite promises, assurances, it would go back to what it was.

"Do you think we could be friends?" she asked suddenly.

"I don't know if it could work," he said slowly.

"Nathan wouldn't have to know. I missed you Luke," she said. He smiled when she called him Luke. So few others did.

"We can try it. I've missed you too," he said. He'd denied missing her to himself for years, but he'd never stopped.

"When I turned my back on that life I never meant to turn you away," she whispered.

"I know. He was my brother. I didn't know who to side with," he said. Haley comfortingly smoothed his blonde hair.

"You were sixteen. I don't fault you. I'll come watch you play sometime," she suggested.

"Okay. Bring your foster child so I can meet them," said Lucas.

"Deal," she agreed, discreetly wiping a minute tear from the corner of her eye. Sometimes Haley hated how uncontrollable her tears were.

"Hey, don't cry. You'll always be my best friend, remember? Here," he said, holding out his fist. Smiling, her face voice of tears, she held out her own and they knocked fists.

Hesitantly she rested her head again on his shoulder. In the past ten years, Haley had blocked out her feelings. Blocked out her love for Nathan, replaced it with her desire to become a musician. Blocked out the memory of her hometown with exciting, beautiful Manhattan.

She'd tried to replace Lucas' friendship, yet had found herself completely unable to. Underneath Chris' friendship was always his lingering desire to sleep with her. So the place in her heart that Lucas had once occupied had become a void.

When a basket full of midmorning snacks came around, Lucas plucked out of it a small package of Doritos. He frowned to himself as Haley turned down the offer.

"When did you go all Hollywood?" he wondered, pulling open the bag and letting the artificial cheese smell hit him.

"When I moved to New York and discovered how much of a bigger deal it is to be of an average, healthy weight," she lamented. He glanced worriedly at her tiny waist.

"I get to eat a lot because our coach makes us spend so much time training," said Lucas.

"That bad?" asked Haley, pulling a sympathetic face.

"Makes Whitey look like a softie," said Lucas. She giggled.

"Well, Whitey is a bit of a softie," she pointed out.

"Yeah, we just make him believe that none of us see through him. Pretty good system," he said. Making eye contact, the two friends broke into laughter that disturbed the rest of the car.

"So do you still love it?" asked Haley.

"Sure. It's intense, but it's a pretty amazing feeling, going out there, thousands of people rooting for you," said Lucas. Haley tuned him out, thinking of a similar feeling: the feel of going onto a stage, heavily made up, knowing that everyone in the place thought she was incredible. The feeling that would have meant so much more to her with just one more person thinking she was incredible.

"I remember," she said softly. She did remember. She could never forget.

"We never talked about it but back when we were kids, the five of us would separately watch you on TV every time you came on," said Lucas.

"How do you know, if you all did it separately?" she asked.

"It was obvious. We'd all come to school and avoid each other's eyes," he explained. Haley settled deeper into his shoulder.

"When did Jake become one of us? You," she said, quickly correcting her self.

"Just after you left, he came back and hooked up with Peyton. Around then. He's a good guy, Jake," said Lucas. Lucas felt her nod on his shoulder, but he didn't see it.

"Best guy for Peyton possible," said Haley. She blushed at the implication behind her words. "I didn't mean…"

"Don't. High school was a million years ago. In what kind of universe does everyone end up with their high school love?" he asked her. She shrugged.

"A universe that is kinder to high school love," she guessed. He smiled, siding with her opposed to Nathan for the first time in years.

"Then how would we know how to deal with love after we break hearts in high school?" asked Lucas.

"We wouldn't. We don't anyway. I haven't been in love since high school," said Haley. She raised an eyebrow at her own claim when it escaped her lips. Officially, she considered herself in love with her ex-husband.

"That's too bad," he said, genuine feeling behind his simple, inadequate wording.

"I'm okay. Hey, you haven't yet told me about Peyton and Jakes' youngest kid," said Haley. Lucas, eager to get back to comfortable ground, launched into an explanation of Benjamin Lucas Jagielski.

"Well he looks a lot like Jake but he acts more like Peyton…" began Lucas, as the train began to steam towards the city.

* * *

Haley felt her body tense up an hour later when the train pulled into the final destination.

The two of them, close to the exit, stood up to get out of the train amongst the first to leave. As it had been before, a train attendant threw Haley's bag down the short flight of steps, where it was caught by another uniformed worker.

Lucas walked down the stairs first and stared as Haley did the same, knowing already that their friendship would never be that easy again.

He couldn't help smiling as Haley again showed a Haley like tendency: her heel caught, and she stumbled, tripping over the last step and waving her arms wildly to stop herself from landing face first on the cold, hard platform.

The smile wiped off his face when she realized that Haley was in danger of hurting herself and instinctively he opened his arms and caught her before she could fall.

Haley smiled gratefully at him, still relishing the familiar feel of his comfortable hold. Taking advantage of opportunity, she put her arms around him in embrace. Smiling, he squeezed her as she rested her head on his broad chest.

They stood like that for a time, moving slightly for the other passengers to stream out of the train, locked in their loving embrace. Both of them were remembering a simpler time: free of basketball, heartbreak, gossip and deceit. Back in the days of Haley and Lucas.

If they had been able to see the future, would they have again chosen not to be Haley and Lucas?

Haley leaned back her head and smiled her slow smile at him.

"Keep in touch Luke," she said. Gently she reached up and brushed a kiss on his lips. A kiss that was technically completely platonic, completely innocent. A kiss that goes between friends. A kiss that they only deepened for a fraction of a second. Not as Luke and Haley, best friends forever, but as Lucas Scott, basketball pro, and Haley James, renowned musician. Two adults, completely detached from their young selves.

"Uncle Luke!" came an excited call. Haley stepped out of Lucas' embrace to see a slim, tall preteen with thick, layered dark hair and sparkling hazel eyes.

"Hey Jen!" he said, sounding genuinely delighted. He affectionately slung one are around the nearly full grown girl.

"Jenny Jagielski?" asked Haley in wonder, taking in every inch of her. From the fashionable clothes on her back to the purse hanging on her wrist, the experimental makeup on her face.

"Yeah, that's me. What's your name?" asked Jenny. Haley was slightly surprised, and slightly not, that her name had apparently not been mentioned in a decade.

"Haley. It's nice to see you again. I knew you as a baby," explained Haley, to Jenny's skeptical expression.

Haley stiffened as Peyton Sawyer's call echoed through the train station, so familiar yet far off in her mind.

"Luke, you're back! How was the ride?" asked Peyton eagerly, stepping into Lucas' arms. Haley felt a shock at the all grown up Peyton, with a ring on her finger, brown curls over her shoulders, a toddler on her hand. Peyton who hadn't even noticed her.

"It was great. How's everything going?" asked Lucas, concern reaching his lighthearted words. Unexpectedly, Peyton blushed.

"Very well, according to the doctor," she said, smiling.

"Mom, do you know Uncle Luke's friend Haley?" asked Jenny. Peyton, still facing Lucas, stiffened immediately at the mere mention of the name from her past life.

"Haley James," she breathed, the name barely making a noise. Ben went to stand with his sister, who looked on anxiously, obviously already aware of the delicacy of the situation, despite her age.

Haley stared as Peyton slowly revolved on the spot. The two women evaluated each other. Peyton noticed immediately that although she had been slimmer in high school, Haley was now considerably slimmer and shorter. Haley's vintagey, quirky style had been replaced by designer, expensive clothing that accented her figure well. Her hair was straight and blonde and fell far past her shoulders. Her makeup was the same, natural and light.

Peyton then forced herself to look into Haley's eyes. The large brown eyes that Peyton had always considered to be Haley's best feature. They were so full of emotion, of pain, of life.

"Hey Haley," she said at last. Haley smiled. She had a sneaking suspicion that Brooke would have merely stalked off. Peyton was more liable to bend broken fences.

"Peyton," she greeted her, attempting to smile. Haley was surprised at her longing to hug the girl that had been such a good friend to her.

"How're you doing?" asked Peyton carefully.

"Good. I um, ran into Luke on the train. Your kids are beautiful. And you're..?" asked Haley, subtly indicating Peyton's stomach.

"Four months. And thanks. I'll uh see you around," said the taller woman, grabbing her son's hand and motioning for her son to follow her. Sending a brief smile to Haley, Peyton led them on their way.

Haley stared after the departing foursome. It was so incredibly inevitable, that despite the promises, the truce, the love, that Lucas would leave her without a backward glance, as she had once done to him.

She pasted on a smile when a blonde with a nervous smile and round glassed came up to her.

"Haley, how was your trip?" asked the woman.

"It was great. How're you doing Lannie?" asked Haley. The two women hugged. Alanna Shaw, commonly known as Lannie, was Haley's personal assistant, and the relationship of the two hovered between friendship and business.

"The car's waiting out front," said Alanna, ushering her boss outside. Haley automatically felt for the handle of her bag, but Alanna had already taken it in hand.

Once the two reached the outdoors, they moved to enter the long black car before the public could descend on her. As Haley shoved on a pair of sunglasses, she glanced down the busy road and saw a tall blonde figure, getting into a taxi, watching her drive back to her life.

* * *

Peyton said nothing to Lucas in the car ride, but he almost didn't notice when he was bombarded with chatter from the two others. She smiled to him as he got out, he kissed her cheek, and he disappeared into his building.

"That lady, Haley, was a friend of ours a long time ago," said Peyton eventually, directing the explanation toward her surrogate daughter. The girl nodded gravely.

"Oh," she said, hoping her mother would go on.

"Yes. And she was married to Nathan for a little while, and she was Lucas' best friend," explained Peyton. Jenny nodded again at the news, not calculating how young the two of them had been.

"So they were just friends?" asked Jenny cautiously. Peyton nodded affirmatively, glad that Jenny hadn't been alarmed at the news of the Naley of the past life.

"Good friends," said Peyton.

"They were kissing, when I came up," said Jenny casually, leaping out of the taxi when it came to their building.

* * *

_Author's note: Thank you so much for all the reviews! Especially all those nice long detailed ones I've been getting. _

_Coming up (In the near future, if not neccessarily next chapter)_

_A Naley encounter. The introduction of Haley's foster child. More Peyton news. _


	6. Back to Reality

Chapter Six: Back to Reality

Peyton forced herself not to run after her skipping daughter. Instead she helped her son out of the car, a protective arm over her stomach, and followed in a more sedate matter.

Thought swirled through her head, most of them anger at Haley, some of them even anger at Lucas. She even desired that her daughter was mistaken. She knew them well. She knew what drama such a small gesture could bring. She'd lived through it many, many times before.

Peyton set Ben down in front of a Sesame Street video before seeking out Jenny.

"Mom?" asked Jenny in surprise, looking up from the book she was reading, sprawled out on her bed.

"Hey sweetie. I was wondering if I could talk to you," said Peyton, staying stationary at the door even as Jenny motioned her inside.

"About Haley?" prompted Jenny, sitting up and tucking her legs underneath her.

"Yeah. So she was married briefly to Nathan, and then she left very suddenly and sort of never came back so there's a lot of anger around the whole thing," said Peyton.

"I feel like I've seen her before," said Jenny. Peyton sighed inwardly.

"Yeah, you probably have. She's Haley James, she's a famous singer," supplied Peyton.

"Shit, seriously? Wow, that's so awesome. You used to be friends?" asked Jenny eagerly.

"A thousand years ago. So you said they were kissing…" said Peyton, with the distinct air of someone going somewhere they didn't remotely want to see.

"Yeah. And he has his arms around her, but that was just because she was about to fall," explained the girl, her hazel eyes focused on her mother's face.

"So the kiss… was it passionate, or just like a peck?" asked Peyton. Jenny shrugged.

"I don't really know," she said.

"Was there…"

"Tongue?" supplied Jenny. Peyton smiled ruefully at how precautious her daughter was.

"And?"

"Just a little, I think. More like a friendly peck thing," she said.

"But with tongue?" pressed on Peyton.

"Sure, why not. Wouldn't Nathan get really mad?" asked Jenny, her eyes bulging.

"Yes, sweets, that's the idea. Can you do me one last favour and not tell Daddy?"

Jenny's eyes grew wide again at the enormousness of her mother's request. There were many things she kept from her father, but none that she had to keep. They were verging into dangerous territory, and both of them knew it.

"I won't. I promise," she swore. Peyton smiled, kissed her daughters forehead and was out of the room in a flash.

Peyton was halfway down the hall before Jenny had leaned out of her doorway and called after her.

"What is it, Jen?" asked Peyton, sounding strained.

"You're pregnant?" she asked, finally having put together the clues. Peyton's face relaxed into a smile."

"Four months in. Yeah," she said.

"Congratulations. It had better be a girl this time," she said, winking. Peyton winked back and smiled, secretly hoping the same thing.

Peyton jumped slightly, shocked when the pounding of large feet came to her in the kitchen, where she was doing the dishes.

"Wow, you okay?" asked Jake's voice, in response to the shriek she'd made.

"I'm fine," she whispered. His hands landed on her shoulders, and he kissed her neck before his hands moved on to cup her still flat stomach.

"How you feeling?" he asked anxiously. Peyton sometimes loved how much her husband worried.

"I'm great. I told Jenny, or rather she figured it out," she said.

"When you told Luke maybe?" asked Jake, looking so sweetly ignorant.

"Yeah, when we went to pick him up," she said.

"And how's Luke doing? Anything new with him?" asked Jake. Peyton shuddered, glad she was facing away from her husband, that he could not see her dishonest eyes.

"No, but he's good," she said. Jake spun her around so she was facing her and the two kissed. For the first time, Peyton felt guilty of their love, after the first lie to him that had actually mattered in years.

Leaving the two children with their father, Peyton journeyed across town in a taxi to see Brooke, who was scheduled to meet her at her lavish apartment.

"Brooke?" she called experimentally. Brooke appeared, blushing, trailed by a tall dark haired man, who smiled almost apologetically before letting himself out. Peyton smiled and wondered if her best friend would ever change.

"Hey Peyton. What's up?" she asked, immediately noticing the worry lines around her best friend's eyes.

"Everything," she moaned, sitting down beside Brooke and dropping her head into her lap. Stunned, Brooke began to gently stroke her curls in comfort.

"Did something happen with Lucas?" she asked gently.

"No! God no! I went to pick him up at the station with Jenny and Ben, and he wasn't alone," said Peyton, her voice faltering.

"What, he was with a woman? That still bothers you?" asked Brooke, her confusion growing.

"Generally not. When it's Haley James however, and my daughter tells me they were kissing, it's a different matter," said Peyton. Brooke gasped.

"Haley and Lucas? No way! What does that bitch think she's doing?" demanded Brooke.

"Brookie, it was a million years ago," said Peyton, sitting up straight, surprised at her friend's reaction.

"She royally screwed both of them over, and left without a word. She doesn't deserve him, even as a friend," said Brooke passionately.

"It was ten years ago. And who does deserve him? You?" asked Peyton gently. Brooke rolled her eyes and groaned.

"As a boyfriend, he's complete crap. I'm never going back to that. But as a friend, she's even worse. Ten years aren't enough to lessen the pain she caused," said Brooke.

"Is it still pain, or just a memory?" asked Peyton.

"It's empathy. I've known Nathan my whole life, never saw him as bad as that," said Brooke shortly. After that she pressed her lips closed and refused to speak of it.

Peyton knew she only had one more confrontation to make, and also knew that it would be by far the messiest.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" demanded Peyton, much later, as she stormed into Lucas Scott's apartment.

"I'm making coffee," he said in confusion. She glared at him for a moment.

"No, with Haley! You were making out?" asked Peyton.

"No! It was a peck. Between friends. Nothing could stop us from being together on that train, Peyton, even if I wanted it too," said Lucas.

"Bull. You wanted to be with her Luke. And she said it wasn't a peck," said Peyton sadly. Lucas sighed, leaned down, and kissed her lightly.

"There. That's what it was like. Nothing," he said again. Peyton's hand slapped against Lucas' cheek with all her might.

"Would Nathan see it that way? Because that's really what you've got to ask yourself," said Peyton.

"Nathan would kill me if I so much as mentioned her name," said Lucas.

"Yeah, and he'd do worse if he found out. Did you sleep with her?" asked Peyton bluntly.

"No!" said Lucas defensively. Peyton narrowed her brown eyes.

"Keep it that way. Well did you want to?" she asked. Lucas' mouth opened, but no words came out. He struggled for words that would not incriminate him, yet knew that there were none.

"Lucas Scott, she was your brother's wife!" said Peyton, her voice low and fearsome.

"It was once. I walked into the bathroom and she didn't have a shirt on. She's beautiful, and I'm only human," he responded, his jaw tensing.

"You can't do this! You'd seriously open this whole thing up again? You'd do this to him? You'd do this…" Peyton began to tear up. "To us?"

Lucas was unable to resist the urge to take his friend in his arms and rub her back, consoling her gently. Peyton, altered by her pregnancy hormones, gave away to her sadness.

"No. I don't want to hurt anyone. I just liked being her friend again. You don't have to worry about all of us. You worry enough for yourself," he said. Peyton smiled, thinking of the passion that had once been between them, about the friendship that now replaced it, one of the most precious things to her. She smiled about the current moment, cradled in his arms, so sweet, so loving, so completely unromantic.

"I know. I'm just afraid," said Peyton.

"Let her in. She might surprise you," advised Lucas.

"I told Brooke. She was furious," said Peyton.

"Brooke can surprise you. What did Jake say?" he asked, as she stepped away from his embrace and wiped her eyes with a tissue.

"I didn't tell him. I can't," said Peyton. "And don't preach to me, you've never been married."

"Don't think I ever will be," said Lucas, laughing.

"I don't think you will either. But miracles have happened," she ribbed.

"Stop that, you," he said.

"By the way, you need to work on your stealth. Jenny totally figured it out," said Peyton, smiling for the first time.

"Ah well. Do you know yet if it's a girl or a boy?" he asked.

"No. And I don't know if I want to know. Jenny's getting her heart set on a girl," said Peyton, smiling ruefully.

"Well, I guess probability is working in her favour. So do you think you guys'll stop at three?" asked Lucas. Peyton nodded affirmatively.

"Oh, definitely. Two is pretty crazy as it is, and Jenny'll be a teenager soon and I can't deal with all that," said Peyton.

"It'll be a big wakeup call for Ben," he said.

"Yeah, he's so much the baby, but I think he might enjoy the change. I hope I do too," said Peyton.

"I'm sure you will. How could you not?" asked Lucas. Peyton smiled again before apologizing for her outburst and preparing to leave the apartment.

"Just one more thing?" asked Peyton. Luke nodded.

"Can you just… not see her again?" asked Peyton. Lucas stared at her for a long moment before a picture of his brother's hurt face swam into his head.

"Sure. You got it," he said, waving as she left.

Haley sent Alanna home and collapsed onto her sofa, weary yet exhilarated after her long journey. She felt as though she'd journey away from San Fransisco and back to where she'd came from. It was a nice feeling after being lost for so long.

Chris Keller called and she talked to him for a time, explaining about her volunteer work, and listening to an update on his career. By oversight or intention, she failed to mention Lucas. Haley knew that Chris wouldn't see the meeting as platonically as she forced herself to see it.

After she hung up Haley kept the phone in her hand, staring at it. She had again come to a crossroads, but this one only indirectly concerned Nathan, and wholey concerned Lucas. For ten years she'd been able to live without him, but that was before she could let herself remember what his friendship was. She remembered now. So really there was only one option, and no true crossroad.

"Hey," she said into the phone, when it picked up.

"Haley, that you?" asked Lucas.

"Yeah, it's me. What's up?" she asked. Lucas was silent for a moment, thinking of his promise to Peyton to cease communication and his promise to Haley to always be there for her.

Haley waited for him to respond, praying that he hadn't changed his mind, that in his heart he still believed they could be friends.

"Nothing much, what about you?" he asked, as the part of him that wanted Haley back in his life finally won over the part of him that wanted Peyton.


	7. The Same as Always

Chapter Seven: The Same As Always

Haley, who had just come back from lunch with Lucas, was wandering around her apartment.

One room was the one she'd set across for the child that was coming to live with her in a matter of days. Seeing as she hadn't yet learned the name, age, or even gender of them, she had yet to personalize it. One room was her one-a large four poster bed, a flat screen television, two small sofas, a luxurious en suite bathroom. Her living room had elegant, expensive furniture and a baby grand in the corner. Her family room was decorated in more macho brown leather furniture. Her dining room had eight chairs around the mahogany table, that which were rarely if ever full.

Besides this she had four empty bedrooms, two other rooms, a study she rarely entered and a music room she spent a lot of her time in. Haley couldn't help but think it was a waste, that she never shared it with anyone.

The phone was again in her hand, her finger again hovering over the numbers, in preparation to dial, when it rang, startling her.

"Hello, this is Haley James," she said, hoping it wasn't a crazed fan.

"Ms. James, this is Nancy Evans, I'm a foster care representative for the state of New York," said a brisk, businesslike voice.

"Hey," said Haley, not knowing what else to say.

"I'm to inform you that your request to be a foster mother has been accepted and we have located a child for you," continued the voice. Haley grinned.

"Great, what's the name?" she asked. There was a slight pause.

"Child number 643. A Gabriela Travers. She's thirteen, and her mother died of a drug overdose when she was a child," said Nancy. Haley immediately felt pity over the child that would soon be in her charge.

"That's horrible. When should I come get her?" asked Haley, surprised and confused that the child was a teenager and not a small child, which she'd expected.

"Tomorrow, if that works with your schedule, Ms. James," said Nancy. Underneath her monotonous voice, Haley detected a tinge of reverence.

"That will be great, I'll be there," said Haley.

"That's great, we'll prepare the child," she said, as the two women hung up.

Haley stared around her apartment again, suddenly afraid. She'd expected a baby, or a toddler. She could handle babies. She'd had plenty of experience with Jenny Jagielski and all her nieces and nephews. Teenagers were a completely different story.

Resolve finally hitting her, she ran out of her apartment, calling her driver as she did so to come pick her up outside.

Scrolling through the address book of her blackberry, she came to the address she was looking for.

Haley's trepidation mounted as she knocked on the door, cream paint peeling, the smell of cigarette smoke noticeable on the stairs.

When no one answered her knocks, she gently pushed the door open and surveyed the decrepit apartment within. She called out experimentally:

"Taylor?"

"What, you've never heard of knocking?" came a disembodied voice. Taylor James came around the corner and stopped short at the sight of her little sister. "Hal? Hey."

Taylor's voice had started out harshly but it softened when she saw her little sister, looking so professional, so beautiful, yet so lost. They stared at each other, taking in each other's images. Haley was shocked at how similar they looked. They both had similar long, straight brown hair, slight, short figures. Taylor's eyes were blue and Haley's brown, but both of them felt that they looked more like sister than they had ever before.

"Hey Tay," she said gently, resisting the urge to scorn her sister's home.

"What are you doing here?" asked Taylor, bringing them back to harsh realities. The simple truth was that the two had not come into contact in years.

"I wanted to see you. I missed you," admitted Haley.

"Perfect Haley isn't so perfect anymore," remarked Taylor. Haley would have been offended, had it been farther from the truth.

"Not so perfect," she echoed.

"You look good," said Taylor, telling a half truth. Haley tried to repeat the sentiment, but found she could not.

"This place is…"

"I can afford it," said Taylor defensively.

"I need your help," said Haley. She'd been thinking of ways to say what she wanted to say all the way in the car ride over, and had come up with nothing.

"What is it?" she asked, taking a single step toward her sister.

"The thing is is that I'm taking in a foster child. A girl, Gabriela Travers. And I know we haven't talked in a while but I'd really like to change that and she's thirteen and I know nothing about teenagers and…" Taylor cut Haley off.

"You think I do? Come on, I got this at thirteen," said Taylor, twirling around and showing Haley the scorpion on the small of her back. "You still got yours?"

Haley's hand wove around her body and she felt the spot, before she turned around and showed her sister the 23 that was still branded on her.

"Why do you think I know any better?" asked Taylor gently, after a glance at the small blue number.

"Because you helped raise me," said Haley, her voice breaking. Both of them immediately thought backwards fifteen years, back to the days when their parents had been so busy with their many children that Taylor had been forced to 'educate' her little sister.

"Apparently I didn't do to well," said Taylor, noticing the sadness in Haley's eyes.

"None of it was your fault. None of it was anyone's fault, except maybe mine," she said.

"Nothing's anyone's fault after ten years, Haley-bub. So you want me to visit?" asked Taylor.

"No, I don't," said Haley. Taylor raised a blonde eyebrow. Haley cast another look around the tiny apartment.

"What?"

"No, I don't want you to visit. I want you to stay. Pack your stuff," said Haley authoritatively, folding her arms and leaning against the wall.

"What are you talking about?" asked Taylor.

"I'm serious. You can come live with me. I'm lonely and I need your help, and this place is…" said Haley, finding herself unable to completely diss her sister's life.

"A dump, I know. Did Mom and Dad tell you to do this?" asked Taylor suspiciously.

"No. Lucas did. Kind of," said Haley.

"You're still talking to Lucas Scott? Damn, he was hot," said Taylor.

"Sort of. We ran into each other. So you coming, or not? There's a Jacuzzi. And flat screen TVs. And I have a chauffeur. Come on, Tay," begged Haley, surprising both at them at her eagerness to have her sister back in her life. Taylor wavered for a second.

"There's no way in hell I'm going to be able to pay half the rent," she cautioned. Haley laughed in relief.

"Don't worry, I own the place. Come on, let's get moving," she said. Taylor shrugged, pretending not to be remotely excited at the prospect, and ran into her room to pack.

Only when the two were back in Haley's car, Taylor's duffle bag between them, did Lucas Scott come up.

"So what were you saying about Luke?" asked Taylor, eyeing the interior of the expensive car.

"Oh, I was coming back from California and we were beside each other on the train. We're trying to be friends again," said Haley, as Jared, the chauffeur, passed the park.

"And did you..?" Taylor left her question open, but the implication was clear.

"God no," said Haley. Taylor raised an eyebrow at her sister's strong reaction.

"But you've done it since Nathan… right?" asked Taylor, feeling an unexpected wave of self doubt.

"Yes. With a few guys. Nothing special. Lucas saw me half naked though," said Haley, spilling more of the story.

"Really? Did he stare?"

"Sure. He is a man," said Haley, rolling her eyes as the two arrived in front of Haley's luxurious building.

Ten minutes later, Taylor was wandering around the apartment, failing completely to hide her amazement.

"This place is huge. Freaking huge. And there are like thousands of rooms," she gushed.

"Yeah," said Haley, feeling inadequate.

"Shit, I would have left my husband for this in a heartbeat. The elevator opens right into your apartment," she continued.

"Uh huh," agreed Haley.

"You have a fountain in your entry room," said Taylor.

"That came with the place," said Haley.

"Why didn't my place come with a fountain?" wondered Taylor aloud. Haley giggled.

"Put that on your next classified: needed: one bedroom, south facing, working fountain," suggested Haley.

"God, like I'm ever leaving here. Even when a teenager arrives. Speaking of which, when is she coming? And what's her name again?" asked Taylor, flopping down onto the couch.

"We're to pick her up tomorrow. And Gabriela Travers. Hopefully she won't mind Gabby," said Haley.

"Yeah. So where do you stand with Nathan?" asked Taylor. Haley rolled her eyes at her sister's lack of tact.

"No where. I haven't seen him in years. I don't know if I even want to see him," said Haley. Taylor awkwardly took her sister's hand in comfort.

"You were young," she said simply. Haley stared at her sister for a beat.

"We're older now," she said simply.


	8. When the Past and the Present Collide

Chapter Eight: When the Past and the Present Collide

Taylor all but forced Haley out of the house when the latter's bouncing around, fixing things, and double and triple checking everything in the place began to drive her crazy.

Haley stared out into the bustling street as her driver made his way toward her in the car. She knew where she needed to be, knew why she needed to be there, but desperately didn't want to go. Even as a child, she'd been reluctant to face the necessities of life-going to the dentist, the first day of school. Picking up the pieces of her life.

She reluctantly directed Jared across town, mulling through a conversation plan as they went.

Peyton Jagielski stared at Haley, standing nervously on the threshold of her home, anxiously tucking her hair behind her ear, showing her nervous habits.

"Can I come in?" asked Haley, before Peyton could have a chance to say anything. Peyton nodded, her curls bouncing. Silently she stepped aside and allowed Haley James to step into her home.

Haley looked around, picturing her old friend and her children, her husband in the moderately sized, artistically decorated apartment. She saw traces of them everywhere: pictures of Jake playing with his two kids, Peyton carrying a baby Ben in his arms, smiling a secret smile, Peyton's framed artwork everywhere. Haley smiled, noting how much more like a home it was than her own.

"What do you want?" asked Peyton eventually.

"Peyton, I'm sorry if I hurt you, but don't you understand how hard it's been for me?" asked Haley.

"That's too bad but I have trouble feeling sympathy. You left him," she replied coolly.

"And then I went back! Did he ever tell you that? Tell him that I came back, wanting to try again, ready to be his wife and he pushed me away?" asked Haley. Peyton allowed herself to glance into Haley's warm, honest brown eyes before pulling away.

"He did not," she said, losing ground.

"I didn't think so," she said gently.

"But you hurt him so badly. What's going on between you and Lucas?" demanded Peyton. Haley visibly shrank.

"Nothing. It was just a train. We're trying to be friends," said Haley.

"Do you want him?" asked Peyton. Haley sighed.

"Sweetie, he's Lucas Scott. I'd be lying to say there was never a Joey Loves Dawson thing going on," admitted Haley. She paused, gathering her thoughts, and spoke again: "But Dawson and Joey don't end up together."

Peyton stared at the peeling paint on the ceiling, utterly confused. She was a naturally forgiving person, but there was no getting around the fact that she hated anyone who'd hurt her friends. And Haley had set off a train reaction-Haley had hurt Nathan and Lucas, which had hurt Brooke, which had hurt Peyton. She'd destroyed everything, leaving terror in her wake.

"Nathan still loves you," she said eventually. Haley almost smiled.

"No he doesn't. He loves what I used to be. Peyton, I'm not her anymore," she said.

"Do you still love him?" asked Peyton, ignoring her. Haley swallowed to make her throat less dry, and told the truth as best she could:

"I think so," she managed to say. Peyton seemed oddly satisfied.

"Oh," she said.

"How's Jake?" asked Haley. Peyton's face very nearly relaxed into a smile.

"He's great. We're great. Jenny knows I'm not her mother and regard me as such anyway. Jake stays home and takes care of them, I'm here as often as I can. I have an ultrasound next Thursday for the baby," said Peyton. She looked blissfully happy. Haley felt glad that Peyton, who'd grown up almost parentless, had stepped into a ready-made family at sixteen. Everything had worked out according to plan for her.

"How's Brooke?" asked Haley.

"Good. She'll always be Brooke, you know? She works in PR, she knows everyone," said Peyton briefly, leaving out the more painful aspects. Haley looked past her friend, seemed to see her clearly.

"She hates me, right?" asked Haley.

"Kind of," admitted Peyton.

"I kind of have to go. Actually, I really have to go-I'm getting a foster child today," said Haley.

"Cool," said Peyton, looking surprise and impressed.

"Yeah. Taylor's actually going to help me out. It's a girl-Gabriela Travers, thirteen," said Haley.

"That's awesome," said Peyton.

"Call me," said Haley, leaving before Peyton had a chance to respond.

Haley's heart was light for the first time since the train ride. A plan was forming in her mind: she had befriend Lucas, was working on Peyton… if she could do the same to Brooke, Jake, even Nathan, could she finally be at peace with herself?

Taylor was waiting for Haley in the entrance hall, flicking pennies into the fountain, when Haley ran up.

"Come on, the car's waiting," said Haley briefly.

"So where'd you go? Lucas'?" asked Taylor.

"Peyton's, for your information," said Haley loftily.

"Fine, whatever. But he is a fox. No one would blame you," said Taylor.

"Except for maybe his brother? Who, by the way, I was once married to?" said Haley, as the two reached the lobby of the building.

"Well, that is a slight technicality," agreed Taylor, as they stepped into the shiny black car and drove off.

The two of them hurried into the foster care center, anticipating and terrified all at once. They were ushered into a small office, with a round smiling woman behind the desk.

"Miss James?" she said pleasantly, looking between the two of them.

"That's me," said Haley, reaching out her hand. The woman shook it.

"I'm Daphne Cartier. And this is your… close personal friend?" asked Daphne Cartier, attempting to appear diplomatic. Haley blushed, but Taylor had to bite the inside of her cheeks to hold in a laugh.

"This is my big sister, Taylor James. We're roommates, and I'm single," said Haley, blushing furiously.

"I apologize, dear. Now I just need to fill out some forms, and then we can bring in Miss Travers and the three of you can go," said the woman. Haley nodded, and proceeded to sign, initial and read fine print while Taylor stared out the window, and occasionally over her little sister's shoulder.

"Haley?" whispered Taylor eventually.

"What?" asked Haley irritably, immersed in a document.

"Can I borrow your phone?" persisted Taylor.

"Why?"

"Because I need to make a call," muttered Taylor.

"Yeah, I figured. Here, go," said Haley, handing Taylor the phone and continuing on with her papers.

Ten minutes later, Taylor was back and Haley was finished. The round woman, Daphne, came back into the room, leafed through the papers, and smiled falsely.

"That's all in order. Miss Travers is waiting for you in the entry way," she said. Haley hurriedly stood, shook her hand and walked out of the room.

There were several children standing, obviously waiting, but only one that could possibly be Gabriela Travers-a lone figure, standing in the corner. She looked younger than thirteen as they approached but as the two got closer, she suddenly looked much older.

The first thing the two noticed about her was her hair: long, straight, vibrantly red hair, left to hang over her shoulders. Haley swiftly admired it. Her eyes changed continually from gray to green, occasionally stopping at blue. They looked to Taylor like a storm at sea, or the sea itself. She was short, Haley's height, and had freckles all around her face. But because of how light and almost transparent the freckles were, because of the wisdom and pain in her face, she looked much older than a young teenager.

"Hi, Gabriela?" asked Haley, sticking out her hand. The girl looked from Haley's outstretched hand to Haley. Slowly she reached out her own and shook with a surprisingly firm grip.

"Or Gabby," she said, looking between them.

"I'm Haley, and this is my sister Taylor," said Haley. Taylor smiled at Gabby, who's eyes twinkled slightly, showing emotion for the first time.

"You live together?" she asked.

"Yeah. The apartment's huge, I think you'll like it. Is that all your stuff sweetie?" asked Haley. Through this, Gabriela looked fairly amicable, but she seemed to grow darker at the mention of the term of endearment.

"Yep," she said. She easily hoisted the small duffel bag into the air.

"We can go shopping for some new stuff, if you want," suggested Haley, as they began to move out.

"Thanks," she said.

Her eyes widened when she saw the long black car, but she said nothing, even as she climbed in and saw the spacious interior, the comfortable seats, the back of Jared's head, covered in his cornrows, his head bopping along to hip hop coming through the radio. As soon as he heard Haley come in, he flicked it off, turned around and flashed his brilliant white smile, one that none of the three could resist smiling back to.

Gabby didn't say anything on the ride back, but listened with masked interest to Haley and Taylor's animated conversation, their attempts to converse with her. Taylor was better at it, she occasionally got more than one word answers.

"So, this is your room," said Haley awkwardly, ushering the teenager into the room Haley had picked out and decorated for her. Gabriela said nothing but the other two saw her take in, with wide eyes, the large, high bed, the en suite bathroom, the view of the city, the entertainment center in the corner. The walls were painted in lavender, most of the furniture was white.

"Thanks. It's really nice," she said eventually.

Taylor gently grabbed her sister's arm and tugged her away. The two ended up in a living room and collapsed on separate sofas.

"She's really quiet," said Haley.

"So were you, and now you never shut up. It'll be fine," said Taylor.

"If you say so. She's pretty though."

"Very. Hey, doorbell. Go answer it," said Taylor, rolling back her head and closing her eyes.

"No. You're closer," argued Haley.

"I will give you a thousand dollars to go answer that door right now," said Taylor, her eyes still closed, her hand combing luxuriously through her hair. Haley rolled her eyes, laughed, and leapt up to answer the door.

Haley's eyes widened when they came into contact bright blue eyes, short dark hair, six feet of muscles and a hardened facial expression. She almost gasped when he took in her voluptuous curves, her blonde hair, her lightly made up face. He took a half step toward her, both of them unsure.

"Nathan?" she said eventually, a statement as well as a question.


	9. Schemes and Plans

Chapter Nine: Schemes and Plans

Once upon a time, Haley had been able to read Nathan's eyes, but now looking into the complexity of the cobalt blue was more akin to looking into the eyes of a stranger. She couldn't tell what he felt when she took her own cautious step toward him.

As Haley stepped away from him again, Nathan felt his arm automatically reach out for her, but he could not recall his mind giving permission. He immediately wondered if Haley had even noticed his movement, for her eyes still fastened on his. Her eyes wide, sad, yet so full of hope.

Haley indistinctly heard Taylor yell something at her from the next room. Part of her hoped that Taylor would interrupt, make the moment less personal, less intense, but more of her hoped that Taylor would never find them. Then all of Haley came to sharp realization-Nathan hadn't stopped by by chance. Taylor always would be a meddler, whether it be for good or for evil.

She forced herself to close her eyes for a moment, to regain thought, before looking back into the intensity of his gaze. She forced a smile.

"Hey," she managed to whisper. Somehow the word sounded incredibly foreign and harsh to her, more so than any word she'd ever uttered. She tried again: "Hey."

It was a comfortable word. Nathan felt he could manage it, even in the presence of his ex-wife, still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

"Hi," he said. Subconsciously she twirled a lock of her light brown hair around her index finger. Immediately his eyes fastened to it. She dropped her hand.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked. He sent her a blank look, and instantly she regretted her simple invitation: of course he didn't want to come in to the home of the girl who'd broken his heart so thoroughly. This was not a social call. This was maybe a booty call.

"Taylor told me to come… made up some story. I knew she was lying, but…" began Nathan. It was more than they had previously managed to say.

"She didn't tell you I'd be here?" asked Haley, her lips thin, her voice empty.

Nathan silently shook his head.

"Sounds like Taylor," said Haley. Nathan amazed the both of them by almost smiling.

"I heard you talked to Lucas," he said suddenly. Haley's eyes widened at the tint of jealousy in his voice.

"We're trying to be friends again," she said briefly. This was true.

"Brooke told me. She's pretty pissed," said Nathan.

"Brooke has a tendency to be, I guess," said Haley briefly.

"Right, because Brooke overreacted to how you…"

"Don't start," said Haley, sighing. She had understood his anger nine years previously, but not when they were both completely detached from their young selves, thriving in their adult lives.

"So how about you tell me what I am allowed to do?" demanded Nathan.

"Calm down," she pressed, placing two reassuring hands on his chest. She gasped at the warmth that seemed to spread through her, and quickly backed away.

The two stared at each other for a moment longer, drinking the sight in. Nathan was more built, Haley noticed, his hair slightly more "grown up" looking, dressed in khakis and a button up shirt instead of basketball shorts.

She, he noticed, was showing off her curves more than she once would have done, in a pair of low-rise jeans and a Juicy sweater only half zipped up to expose her breasts, almost spilling out of her camisole. Her hair was light brown, almost golden, and curling slightly. He hadn't forgotten her. It was impossible, with her picture on every magazine in the newsstand.

"Are you in a relationship?" he asked simply. _"With Chris,"_ his eyes said.

"Not right now," she muttered. She tortured him by not returning the question-she knew that asking him would give him the chance to gloat about a girl. And Haley didn't disillusion herself-she knew there was a girl, whether it be his girlfriend, his wife or the girl he hooked up with at his last after party.

"Look, I have to go," he said eventually.

"You don't think we should talk, or something?" asked Haley timidly. Nathan almost smirked-it was sick, it was almost sadistic, to take pleasure in the obvious power he still held over her. He held back a sigh.

"Tomorrow. We'll meet for dinner. I'll have my assistant contact you with the details. We can talk," he said. As Haley noticed his eyes glance to her exposed cleavage, she knew that talk wasn't what he had in mind. Uncomfortably, she remembered the virginal girl she'd been before him, and she zipped up her sweater with the 'J' zipper pull.

"That's great. I'll let Lannie know," she said distractedly.

"Lannie?"

"My secretary. Alanna Shaw," said Haley, with dignity. Nathan shrugged, but said nothing before turning back to walk down the hall.

Haley stared down the hallway, long before his tall, broad frame had retreated. She sighed. It was what she'd been wanting for years, yet it was so unsatisfactory. Haley trembled slightly, thinking of the ordeal of the next night, alone at a table. With Nathan in his suit, his crisp white shirt, possible ironed by a maid, possible a younger blonde girl… Haley shook her head vigorously to block out an image that still pained her after so long.

"Gabby doesn't have anything so you need to come shopping with us," said Taylor, after Nathan had left. Her words were blunt, but her tone was gentle.

"Do you really need me, or do you just need my credit card?" asked Haley, still staring out into the hallway she'd been standing in only a moment before.

Taylor stared at her little sister, wondering if her scheming really had worked out for the best.

"I need both of you. So get some shoes that actually match your outfit and we'll go," ordered Taylor, stomping off toward her bedroom.

2


	10. Back Again

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Most of you seem to have noticed that I didn't update for a month. I guess you didn't read author's notes, or my user page? I was at camp. The lack of updates wasn't because of lack of interest, or motivation or whatever, it was because I was away from a computer the entire time.


	11. Probably Not the Best Idea

Chapter Ten: Probably Not The Best Idea

Haley never spoke a word to Taylor about the setup, or Nathan's visit, but Taylor knew about it. The walls were thin. Her ears were large.

Both of them were reluctantly glad when Gabby began school the next day. They had told her that she could stay home for longer if she wished, to gain bearings, but the girl had been eager for her start.

Gabriela Travers was nothing like Haley had expected. Haley knew that these kids came with their problems, but she'd suspected them to be voiced differently-late nights, out of control behaviour, brattiness. Gabby was polite, well mannered. She said her pleases and thankyous. She just didn't say much else.

Taylor was nervous but not surprised when Haley locked herself in the bathroom for the entire afternoon. She sat on the sofa, attempting to watch the television while she tried to guess, with the different sounds coming from the bathroom, what Haley was doing, and why she was doing it.

Taylor's breath was bated when the door of Haley's room slowly opened, but she was unimpressed when it finally did. Expecting Haley to be dressed in something sultry to show off her curves, to win back the love of her life, Taylor was disappointed to see her little sister dressed in a knee length black skirt, sensible shoes and a cream sweater.

"What are you wearing?" she demanded, raising one eyebrow.

"What? He's my ex husband, I don't have to dress up for him," said Haley, crossing her arms and making a stare to match Taylor's own.

"Please. People who don't want to impress don't wax, or spend all afternoon in a bathroom," said Taylor.

"He still pictures me as sixteen, I have to uphold that image. I've gotten older," said Haley pettishly.

"You're twenty-five, not fifty. Though I'm not saying you look it, in that outfit. Come on, remember how much he used to like your legs?" asked Taylor, taking her sister's arm and dragging her back into the room.

Haley was still protesting fifteen minutes later when the two of them came out again, when she was dressed in a low black dress and stilettos, her hair bouncing down her back.

"I look like a prostitute! He's going to be disgusted! He's going to think I set this up to seduce him!" moaned Haley.

"Come on, like you don't want to. Nathan Scott has been lusting after you since you were sixteen, and you after him. Many girls would kill for that," said Taylor reassuringly.

"Course you never had to," mumbled Haley, staring at her wide selection of handbags.

"Shut up. I didn't ruin your marriage," shot back Taylor.

"You know, people say it takes two to ruin a marriage. I think it takes four," said Haley cruelly, as the doorbell rang.

She received a flashback of his brother when she saw Nathan leaning against the doorframe in Lucas' traditional pose. A flush crept into her cheeks when he couldn't resist his gaze traveling down her body.

The two of them turned to walk silently down the hall. Taylor crept after them, and gently eased the door open to watch, happiness and a tint of jealousy in her eyes.

Haley had been cavorting around in her own limo for almost a decade, but she was still surprised when Nathan's own purred up to the curb, was even more surprised when he chivalrously pulled open the door and took her hand to help her in.

His eyes fastened on her legs again when she crossed them. One of her hands went to fiddle with the earring that hung from her earlobe-a habit of her he still remembered. Sometimes Nathan felt that he remembered all of Haley's quirks, her habits, her idiosyncrasies. Sometimes he felt like he'd forgotten nothing about her.

Sometimes he felt that what they'd had had been so long ago that he couldn't possibly remember anything at all.

The car pulled up to the restaurant, and she quickly got out without his help. Together they walked up to the restaurant. Someone opened the door for them. The maitre d' already knew Nathan, and ushered them in right away. He called Haley Mrs. Scott. Of course he did. Wasn't she? Sometimes even Haley forgot how it worked.

Haley wanted to stare at Nathan as he sat down, planted his feet firmly on the hardwood floor and gritted his teeth while a waiter fluttered around, putting his napkin on his lap, pouring him a glass of wine, handing him a menu and somehow managing to stutter something about his performance in the game against Detroit.

But she couldn't, because Nathan was staring at her.

He was blatantly, almost obscenely, drinking her in. He didn't exactly approve of the long, straight blonde hair, the designer perfume, the expensive, revealing dress, but they made a bewitching combination that he couldn't tear his eyes from-didn't want to tear his eyes from.

* * *

Haley awoke the next morning with a splitting headache and a sour taste in her mouth, images of the previous night flashing through her head, mingling with the tread of his heavy footsteps coming down the hall toward her.

_Author's note: I'm getting the impression no one actually reads these, but anyway. Sorry for the delay. Review lots and I'll get the next chapter up fast, and it's a flashback._


	12. Forever Yours

Chapter Eleven: Forever Yours

Haley shut her eyes tightly, willing herself to remember the events of the previous night. At first, all that came to her was alcohol-vast quantities of it, consumed by both of them. Then the details came.

* * *

At the restaurant, Nathan had ordered steak, like she'd expected him to. Haley couldn't remember her own order, only that she'd ordered it with a glass of wine.

She was glad that the next part of the evening was a blur to her, but she could imagine it-mind numbing silence, awkward glances,

It picked up when she downed her glass of wine, and then several others.

"God, remember when we first met? I thought you were the biggest jerk ever," said Haley, pounding a fist on the white tablecloth.

"I thought you were in love with my brother," said Nathan, recalling the distant time.

"And that you could hurt him through me," she said.

"Always a good goal," he said.

"You were always such an asshole. You still are," she said, laughing hysterically.

"Oh yeah? Then why did you marry me?" he asked suggestively.

"Because…" she leaned toward him and whispered in his ear. Nathan Scott laughed appreciatively and marveled at the irony-how far off Haley had been from the standard of girls he'd dated in his teens, how close to it she was now.

"That's how it is?"

"You'll see how it is," she said coquettishly, smiling and leaning back to better expose her cleavage.

"I look forward to it," he agreed. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, she was distracted by a passing desert.

"Mousse cake! I need to get that! You're paying, right?" she asked, eagerly signaling the waiter.

A half hour later they stumbled out of the restaurant into the busy street. Haley let out a drunken giggle, and Nathan matched it with a full-throated laugh.

Haley did not remember inviting Nathan up, but it was silently understood between the both of them that he would. The driver pulled to a stop and they got out in front of Haley's luxurious high-rise building, they walked past the doorman, who raised a disapproving eyebrow but let them in.

"Taylor?" called Haley into the room. Nathan joined in:

"Taylor James!" they called. Afterward Haley would suspect that Taylor kept quiet to stop them from stopping, but she never really knew.

"So, now that we've got me home safe you might as well get home too," said Haley, turning around and brushing up as close as she could to him without actually touching.

"Safe? You don't want to stay here all by yourself, do you?" he asked

"Can't think of anyone to stay here with me," she said, shrugging her smooth, elegant shoulders.

"I can," he said, finally closing the gap between them and pressing his lips on to hers.

Nathan was initially shocked when Haley went down on her knees and took him in her mouth, but quickly his pleasure overcame his shock. It was something she'd never done when they were married, but it was one change that he welcomed.

He returned the favour when they were together in bed, by ducking under the cover to pleasure her in return. She gripped the sheets, waves of desire washing through her until she felt she would burst from the pent up energy.

"Was it like you remembered?" he asked, after they'd thoroughly completed the act.

"God no. Saying so would practically be blasphemy," said Haley, spreading her legs again to hint to him that she enjoyed the change.

* * *

Haley was shocked out of her reverie when the door opened and Nathan came in, wearing nothing but his boxers. He smiled when he saw her, and she realized how erotic she looked-her upper body out of the duvet, fully on display, her hair careening down to the pillow.

"Nate…. We… Didn't we?" she asked feebly, covering her breasts with the sheet.

"It was that forgettable?" he asked, slowly approaching from the doorway.

"I remembered, didn't I?"

"Yeah. Sorry. You were pretty far gone," he said, forcing a laugh.

"Whereas you were a perfect gentlemen. Are we doing this, Nathan?" she asked, her eyes round.

"Doing what?"

Haley floundered for a word to encompass all that she meant in her heart.

"Naley," she said finally.

"It's kind of early to…" he began to say.

"No, Nathan. It's nine years too late. If you don't mean it, if you can't do it, I want you to go. But if you think we can make this work…" she said carefully. Haley never understood how Nathan managed to climb atop her so quickly, but climb he did. He leaned down to kiss her gently.

"I could love you forever," he said. Haley indistinctly registered the cheesiness of his line, but not before it warmed her completely.

"And I think you might just," she said, accepting his kiss with a light heart.


	13. All I Ask of You

Chapter Twelve

_Author's note: For Ange, who almost, but not quite, managed to convince me not to post this._

Nathan left fairly early the next morning, but not before he and Haley had had many chances to get reacquainted.

She was not sad to wave goodbye to Gabby and Taylor several hours later, partially because Taylor was hounding her for details and partially because she needed time to process the thoughts that were galloping through her mind.

* * *

Haley was annoyed at Nathan, but unreasonably so. In her sleep deprived fever, she did not have the presence of mind to call him. She hoped he would telepathically come and take care of her.

He didn't.

She lay on the couch for hours that could have just been minutes, aching for sleep, water and comfort.

"Hales?" came a voice from the door many minutes after the buzzer had rung. She weakly called back to him, and almost smiled when she heard his large feet pad down the hall toward her.

"Hales?" said Lucas again, this time in concern as he saw her huddled, shivering despite the thick blanket.

Lucas frowned in concern and crouched down beside her. Reflexively he reached out and pushed a brown lock away from her sweaty face.

"Hey buddy," he said gently, smiling to reassure her as she raised her eyes to meet his own.

"Hey loser," said Haley. His low chuckle filled the room.

"Where are Taylor and Gabby?" he asked, touching the back of his hand to her hot cheek.

"They went away for the weekend," explained Haley as Lucas tucked another blanket around her.

"Without you?" he asked, crouching on the hardwood.

"I didn't feel like it," she said as he walked out of the room and down the hall in search of her bathroom.

He frowned when he checked her temperature, but didn't say what it was before lifting her, still wrapped in her cocoon of blankets, into his arms.

For one confused moment Haley was stunned. On some level she'd always seen him as the boy she'd first known him as, and his act was so gentlemanly, so all-grown-up, that her thoughts had trouble settling. For some reason that Haley did not remotely comprehend, the gesture seemed completely natural to Nathan and not in the least to his brother Lucas.

She experimentally huddled closer to him while he carried her to her bedroom, guiltily comparing him to his brother. Despite the last few days, she still felt as though Nathan would have left her on the couch and taken care of her from there.

He let her down gently on her bed, covered her with her blankets, shut off the lights and left. Sometimes Haley felt fairly certain that in addition he had brushed a solitary kiss on her forehead, but she never could be sure.

Lucas was worried the next day when Haley still had a high temperature and was still emptying her stomach every few hours, but he said nothing to make her worry, merely supplied her with Pepto-Bismal and kept an ever present bucket at her bedside.

On the third day, Haley got out of bed. She was finally able to keep down meals, and enormously proud of her success.

"You don't have to stay," she said again to Lucas, later in the day when he had made her a cup of tea and entreated her to sit down on the couch, not to wear herself out.

"I want to be here. I haven't seen you in a while," he said, coming to sit beside her.

"No, I've been terribly neglected," she said dramatically, rolling her eyes.

"How's the kid?" he asked.

"Gabriela Travers, thirteen. Silent as a mime," said Haley.

"She'll change, with you and Taylor around. Speaking of which, how's she doing?" he asked.

"She's fine. Much better with Gabby than me, too," admitted Haley.

"You'll do fine. Haven't you been doing this since we were in grade school?" he asked. She smiled.

"It's more different than I would have imagined," she said. She sounded wistful to Lucas' ears. Did she wish that she and Nathan had had a..?

"You'll do fine. I'd love to meet her. I heard you and Peyton mended fences."

"Or attempted to. I think we'll be okay, but I'm not so sure about Brooke," said Haley laughing. Lucas silently admired how tough she could be, despite all that had happened.

"Brooke's a tough nut to crack," he admitted.

"You and her are..?" Haley's sentence trailed off and she made a questioning gesture.

"Not at all. You and Nate?" he asked.

Images, thoughts, answers and questions flew through Haley's mind: the smell of Nathan's body so close to her, the feel of him after so long. How it had felt so good, yet so very wrong.

"Not at all," she said, smiling as if one nostalgic and tragic.


	14. Comings and Goings

Chapter Thirteen: Comings and Goings

Nathan Scott arrived home two days after Haley recovered, and went to her home before his own.

"Did you have a good time?" she asked timidly, after he had kissed her passionately enough to make her feel spectacularly guilty.

"It was fine. What about you?" he asked, leaning down to kiss her again.

"Go…" she began, as the front door creaked open and Taylor bounded in, shadowed by a more sedate Gabby.

"Oh. Wow, I'm sorry. We'll just…" began Taylor, putting an hand on Gabby's shoulder to steer her out.

"Don't," said Haley, realizing with horror that she was uncomfortable with Nathan. "Taylor, you remember Nathan, of course. Gabby this is my friend Nathan," she said.

Haley blushed as Nathan teasingly poked her in the back, as a subtle reminder.

"Boyfriend, Nathan. My boyfriend Nathan," she said, trying out the words on her tongue. She'd rarely used them before-he'd gone so fast from enemy to friend to boyfriend to husband to out of her life completely.

"As in Nathan Scott?" asked Gabby, showing emotion in her face. Clearly impressed.

"Yeah. You follow basketball?" he asked, clearly uncomfortable with children. Gabby shrugged. As Nathan nodded, Haley pictured him with his own kids. Oddly enough not with her kids but with-

"How're you doing, Nate?" asked Taylor, interrupting Haley's flow of thoughts.

"Pretty good. I just got a call from Jake Jagielski. He's going insane," said Nathan, laughing. Haley giggled, but Taylor raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Oh, his wife's five months pregnant. Sorry Hales, but I have to go, press conference," he said. He made to kiss her lips but Haley misunderstood and bent her head, making his kiss land on her forehead.

Taylor stared after him as he left, looking between the two of them.

"Gabby, do you want to go get a snack or something?" asked Haley desperately, as Taylor opened her mouth to speak, guessing she was about to say something vastly inappropriate. Gabby went, and Taylor spoke.

"Someone's been getting some," she said.

"Quiet, you," said Haley, reddening nonetheless.

"Way to deny it. Was it like you'd remembered?" she asked eagerly. Haley thought of all the things she'd done to Nathan that she'd once never dreamed of doing.

"No. Not remotely," she said. Secretly, Haley had always worried that these things would lead to a lack of respect.

"Haley-bub, are you okay?" asked Taylor, suddenly sensitive to her sister's duress.

"Lucas was here, and he stayed for a few days," she began. Taylor gasped.

"Two brothers!" Taylor yelped.

"No, not like that. I was sick, he was taking care of me. He was so sweet, just like old times," said Haley reminiscently.

"That's all wrong! You're supposed to get married to Nathan again! And isn't Lucas supposed to hook up with the Davis one?" asked Taylor anxiously.

"God no. And I know you worked hard to bring all this about, but that doesn't mean you can dictate it," said Haley, her voice hard.

"Excuse me for trying to make your life not suck," said Taylor.

"My life didn't suck. I had everything I'd ever wanted," said Haley angrily.

"Is that so? You spent your entire childhood dreaming of marrying Lucas Scott and then the second you got old enough you fell for his brother!" screamed Taylor.

"We fell in love with other people! It happens. Though I guess YOU WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE!" said Haley, screaming the last words.

"You think I've never been in love? What the hell do you know? I've just never been lucky enough to have love like yours! Returned love!" Taylor made for the door, but turned as her hand reached out to open it. "If I did, I'd never let it go."

Haley exhaled as Taylor left, suddenly feeling ashamed. She turned around to go check on her foster child, but was horrified to find the girl standing directly behind, her eyebrows raised.

"Did you hear… everything?" asked Haley. Gabby nodded.

"Taylor's been running away from loneliness for a long time. Of course she resents you," she mumbled.

"How'd you get so grown up?" asked Haley.

"My mother died when I was three," said Gabby. Her tone was dull, but her eyes were full of pain.

"Did you ever regret not being able to grow up properly?" asked Haley.

"You were never a child," stated Gabriela. Haley almost laughed.

"I was. When I was sixteen, for about six months," she said.

"Is Taylor going to come back?" asked Gabby, sounding slightly anxious.

"Definitely. But maybe not today. So what do you say about me and you going to get some dinner somewhere?"

Gabby came out of her room ten minutes later dressed in jeans and a clean t-shirt, but when she caught a glimpse of Haley, clad in a black evening gown, she ran back into her room and reappeared after another ten minutes in a green dress that went with her hair and was much more appropriate for the occasion.

So the two went out, and Gabriela Travers had her evening of being of being a grown-up. But Haley had a better idea for the next night, one which would give Gabby a night of being a child.

XXXXXXX

Taylor was still not home by the time the next evening came around. Haley was sad: she missed Taylor, and she knew that her sister would enjoy what she had planned for this evening.

"What's for dinner? Are we going out again?" asked Gabby, sounding slightly eager.

"No, we'll order in. But come on, I have something to show you," said Haley, leading her out to the front hall.

They went through a doorway and climbed a staircase that Gabby had had never seen before. She was surprised when they ended up on a gravel paved roof, with only a waist high fence protecting them from falling many, many floors down to the city below. Gabriela peered anxiously over the railing before turning to Haley.

"Are you going to kill me or something?" she asked.

"No. Just remember my friend Nathan?" asked Haley. Gabby nodded. "His brother Lucas was my best friend growing up. And even when we were older than you we always used to do stupid things for fun."

"Like what?" asked Gabby.

"Like… throwing water balloons," said Haley, kicking the basket of them at her feet, already feeling inferior.

"Why? We'll get wet, and cold. And one might go over the edge, and I'm pretty sure that throwing projectiles over high rise buildings is frowned upon. And that door could lock us out and we'd die of hypothermia. And you…" Haley James never knew what she was, according to Gabriela, because the younger girl was cut off by a balloon, which hit her directly in her stomach and exploded. Haley was nervous for a moment as Gabby wiped the broken rubber off her face and blinked her eyes several times.

"And you… You are going to _pay_," she said. Lunging forward, she grabbed a balloon, backed off several feet and lobbed it onto Haley, where it splattered all over her designer shirt.

Taylor looked up when the two of them trooped back down, soaking wet and laughing.

"What the hell were you guys doing?" she asked.

"Where the hell were you?" replied Haley.

"Around. I'm back now, if you'll let me stay," she said. Haley hugged her sister, making her almost equally wet.

"You..!" fired off Taylor.

"I'm freezing," moaned Gabby, wrapping her arms around herself.

"There's a hot tub by the pool. Get your suit," she instructed, running of to get her own.

3


	15. Unforeseen

Chapter Fourteen: Unforeseen

Gabriela Travers walked through the halls of her junior high school with determination. She no longer had reason to feel apologetic about her clothing or her living style, but continued to act as one untouchable to the outside world.

Nervously she walked into the cafeteria, clutching the bag lunch that Haley had packed for her the night before. She could handle her classes, where academics forced her and her classmates to co-exist, but lunchtime was an entirely different story. Lunchtime was dangerous.

Gabby looked around, searching desperately for a spare spot she could sit and be by herself without feeling like an intruder. She could only see one free spot. Her eyes drifted to the girl next to it: thick, expensively cut dark hair brought out the sparkles in large hazel eyes. She looked slightly younger than Gabby, but considerably taller. As if by magic, she lifted her eyes up to Gabby's and smiled encouragingly. Reluctantly she made her way over to the younger girl.

"Hi," said the girl, as Gabby sat down and began to spread out her lunch on a napkin.

"Hi," said Gabby.

"My name's Jen. I think you're in my math class," said Jen.

"Gabby. I'm Gabriela Travers, but don't call me that," said Gabby. Jen laughed, a rich, bubbling laugh.

"Nice to meet you, Gabby Travers. You're new, right? Lunchrooms are torture when you're new," said Jen, rolling her eyes empathetically.

"Yeah. But you don't look like the kind who'd run into that problem," said Gabby. They were wearing the same uniform, but Jen was infinitely approachable, as approachable as Gabby was remote.

"Oh, believe me, I have. I excellerated, you know? I'm actually only twelve, so I should be a year behind you and people judged me a lot for that," said Jen.

"And you proved us wrong, of course," said a blonde girl on the other side of the table, looking embarrassed.

"Oh, right. Gabby, this is Lily, and this is Delia and this is Kiera," said Jen, indicating first the blonde, then a brunette with very curly hair and finally a dark skinned girl with braids that went far past her shoulders. Gabby's eyes swept over these enviously. "And this is Gabby Travers, who's in my math class."

Gabby surprised herself by being able to talk easily with the three other girls. Try as she might, she'd never really had friends. She was even more surprised when the four of them headed outside and were immediately joined by several boys-obviously Jen's clique was a popular one.

The two girls met up again just as Gabby left the building and prepared to walk down to the sidewalk, where Haley's long black car was waiting for her.

"Who's car is that?" asked Jen, her eyes sweeping over it with envy. Gabby stared into space for a moment, knowing that the moment was inevitable but also painful.

"My foster mother's," she said quietly. Jen nodded.

"Okay. Um, do you want to come to my house?" she asked. She sounded nervous. Gabby looked between the car and her new friend for a moment.

"Uh, sure. Is your Mom coming to pick you up?"

"No, silly. I take the subway, come on," said Jen.

"That's what's silly. Come on, we have this ginormous car at our disposal, we might as well do what we want with it. We'll ride it to your house and I'll send it home," suggested Gabby. Jen hesitated, but only for a moment.

"Jared, this is Jen, Jen, this is Jared," introduced Gabby. Jared winked. In a short space of time, Jared had risen to her top qualification of person.

"Where are you ladies going today?" he asked, his very white teeth gleaming. Jen told him her address.

"Gabby, aren't you going to call your m… your house?" she asked.

"Oh, right," she responded vaguely. It hadn't often been an issue to her. Jen's eyes widened again as Gabby pulled an expensive silver flip phone out of her purse and dialed a number.

"Haley? Hi, I'm going to a friend's. That's okay, right?" asked Gabby.

"Sure. What's her name?" asked Haley, relieved that Gabby had made friends.

"Uh, Jen. I'll call Jared to pick me up when I'm done, okay?" she said.

"Sure, sweetie. Have a good time," said Haley.

"Thanks. Tell Taylor I say hi," said Gabby, hanging up.

The girls sat in silence for a moment, unsure of their new relationship away from the school walls, surrounded by Gabby's luxury.

"Is Taylor your brother?" she asked. Gabby laughed.

"Taylor's a girl," she said.

"Oh. Oh, then she and Haley are..?" asked Jen, looking intimidated by issues so far out of her ballpark.

"Sisters, yeah," said Gabby. She settled down into her leather chair, suddenly feeling less awkward.

Gabby had been afraid for a moment that they would have a large difference in wealth, but the building they stopped at was in a nice neighborhood. Jen waved to the doorman and they took an elevator up eight floors.

"DADDY?" screeched Jen into a seemingly empty apartment. Gabby noticed that it was decorated artistically and not conventionally. Little feet came padding down the hallway, and a small boy in overalls with a thatch of curly hair appeared, shyly sticking his thumb in his mouth when he saw Gabby.

"This is my little brother Benny," explained Jen.

"Hi. I'm Gabby," she said. The boy nodded as larger feet came down the hall.

"Hey Jenny," said a man, appearing around the corner.

"Jen, I'm Jen," said Jen (or Jenny), running to greet her father.

"And who's this?" he asked.

"I'm Gabriela Travers," said Gabby.

"Nice to meet you," he said. The door opened behind them, and a woman with light brown curly hair stepped in. She hugged Jen and then Benny.

"Gabby, this is my Mom," said Jen. Gabby smiled.

"Hi Gabby, call me Peyton," said the woman, sticking out a hand to greet her stepdaughter's friend.

2


	16. Loving You Both

Chapter Fifteen: Loving You Both

_Author's note: Chapter dedicated to Ange, who hopefully only hates me a little._

"Gabby, do you want to stay for dinner?" asked Peyton, as the two girls came into the main room.

"No, but thank you. I was just about to call Jared to come pick me up," explained Gabby.

"The phone's right there. Who's Jared, your brother?" asked Peyton curiously.

"Her _driver_, Mom," said Jenny, grinning.

"Nice," laughed Peyton, as Gabby picked up the phone and dialed Jared's cell phone number.

The two girls ran off again as Jared's voice came clearly through the intercom on the wall.

"Usually Mom talks for a while with the parent, hopefully Jared will amount to pretty much the same thing," giggled Jenny.

Gabriela grabbed Jenny's wrist and paused for a moment as footsteps could be heard in the hall outside, heading for the door. Footsteps that were obviously not Jared's. The doorbell rang, and Benny ran joyfully to answer it.

"Oh, hi Haley, we thought you were Jared," said Gabby, smiling slightly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Peyton whip her head around, her thick curls swish through the air.

"Haley," said Peyton softly, looking from her old friend to Gabby.

"Oh, I know you. You were the one kissing Uncle Luke at the train station," said Jenny cheerily.

"What?" said Jake in surprise, coming into the room.

"What? Haley, you can't kiss some train station guy, you're with Nathan!" protested Gabby, her tongue for once ahead of her mind.

"Nathan? Please tell me you mean ten years ago," said Jake, leaning against a wall.

"You've been with Nathan for ten years?" asked Gabby, raising an eyebrow.

"No, they were married ten years ago! Haley, what's wrong with you? You promised you wouldn't mess anything up! You promised! And how could I have been so blind? You told me she was coming, you told me her name… Gabriela Travers, I remember it! As if seducing Lucas wasn't enough…" yelled Peyton, her voice growing hysterical. In three long strides, Jake had reached his wife and taken her in his arms.

"Calm down. Remember what the doctor said," he whispered.

"And now you're back to break his heart again. It's getting old, Haley James," said Peyton wearily.

"He was the one who came to the house! He asked me out, he s…" Haley spoke for the first time, but stopped abruptly.

"Nathan Scott doesn't need to bother to seduce his women," shot back Peyton. Nervously, Gabby reached out and clutched Jenny's shaking hand.

"I'm not his woman," whispered Haley.

"God Haley, why are you so completely incapable of making choices and sticking to them? You've always been that way: first it was love over friendship, then it was Nathan over Chris, then your stupid career over Nathan, and finally Lucas and Nathan again," said Peyton.

"That's not fair, and you know it. Just because I'm not going to say why in front of your children doesn't mean you've always made the best choices," hissed Haley. "Gabby, let's go."

Mutely, Gabby followed Haley out, slowly processing the scene she'd just witnessed. Peyton gently laid a hand on her arm as she left.

"You're welcome here any time," she said.

"I won't be used," said Gabby, turning to leave the room.

The two of them walked silently down the hall, went down the lobby in the elevator, had Jared drive them home.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Haley eventually.

"I'm processing. You and Nathan were married…"

"Yes."

"You and Lucas were?"

"Best friends," supplied Haley.

"Who's Chris?"

"A friend. One who Nathan was convinced was much more," explained Haley.

"Did you ever..?" began Gabby.

"No!" said Haley quickly. Then it occurred to Gabby meant kissing, and that Haley meant sex.

Having gained fuller understanding of the situation, Gabby pursed her lips and kept them close for the duration of the ride. When they arrived home, she went straight to her room and shut the door.

"Something happen?" asked Taylor, coming into the main hall. Haley slumped to the floor, her back on the wall.

"Many, many things. What about you?" she asked.

"Your boyfriends called," said Taylor, leaving. Haley nodded, only noting afterward that that particular statement should not be one so easily understood.

That night Taylor went out partying, and Haley went to bed early.

She tossed and turned in bed for hours before finally slipping into a deep sleep, marred only dissatisfying dreams.

But the dissatisfaction of the lesser dreams paled in comparison to the one that nearly kept her up the entire night.

_Haley could hear the hiss of the shower and feel the hot needles of water in her hair and on her back. It was the most realistic dream she'd ever had, but she knew it wasn't real, as much as she wanted it to be: the shower was not the top of the line shower in her penthouse, but the one she'd shared in the apartment with Nathan._

_As she shower door opened, she felt a presence behind her, turned around and moved into him, the combination of the shower, his hard stomach muscles making her feel weak with desire. The figure gasped as her hand slipped down and began to fondle his hardness, and quickly he pressed her up against the cold shower wall and began to run his lips down her neck._

_A cry rose in Haley's throat as he went inside of her. He gave a hoarse cry of intense pleasure as he came inside of her. _

_"Haley…" he said. Only one name came out of her throat, coming with absolutely no struggle or contest:_

_"Oh Luke…" she whispered._

Haley sat bolt upright in bed, a cold sweat breaking throughout her body as the vivid details of her dream came back to her. She'd rarely had such dreams, but they'd never failed to be about Nathan. Her dream self remember the texture of his dark hair, the sound of his tender voice, the feel of his… of his…

It hadn't felt like that in the dream.

Quickly she took her temperature again, hoping the flu had struck her as it once had. It had not. There was no denying it: once again, Haley James was torn.


	17. Collision

Chapter Sixteen: Collision

Haley smiled as Nathan as he let himself into her apartment and easily navigated through a series of rooms to find her sitting in the living room reading, her legs drawn up onto the white chair she was sitting on.

She felt guilty as she remembered the spark of the relationship when it had first begun. Now it felt like they had never broken up. Complete comfort, total safety. Nothing exciting. Haley was beginning to spend a lot of her time feeling guilty.

She was learning to censor her thoughts.

"Hey, you have a good day?" he asked.

"It was okay. Gabby got an A in her math test," bragged Haley.

"That's great. Jenny made the soccer team," said Nathan. Nathan knew of the face off of Peyton and Haley, but it was yet another skirted issue.

"Good for her. They're good friends. It's good," said Haley unconvincingly. For a moment, it occurred to Haley to walk over the couch and sit with Nathan before the idea passed in a flash.

"Yeah. I brought something for you," he said. She raised her eyebrows as he reached deep into his pocket and pulled out a small object. Haley stared at it for a moment. It was pink, blue, slightly sparkly. Nathan was looking at her as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. She reached for it.

Suddenly it came back to her. The day at the pier, the beginning of their relationship as it had been. How this small, insignificant piece of plastic had once meant the world to her.

Haley slowly slipped it onto her wrist, beside the bracelet she'd got from Tiffany the week before, and across from her Rolex. Even her wrists were different than they'd been in high school.

"Thanks, Nate. I wish I had something for you," she said. He smirked.

"Ah, but you do," he corrected her. Nathan walked over, picked her up from the chair and sat her on his lap. Agreeably, she planted a kiss on his lips.

"Is Taylor here?" he asked, as their kisses deepened.

"No," Haley whispered. Haley remembered the Nathan that had been so frustrated with her refusal to have pre-marital sex. She'd always been secretly afraid that her sudden inclination to do so would make her seem like all those other girls. All the millions that there had been. Haley remembered how she and Lucas had played mini-gold when Nathan, Brooke and Peyton had been partying, getting into drugs and having sex. She couldn't help it. She was thinking of these things more and more, and the more she tried to shut them out the more freely they flowed in.

In a flash, Haley was on her back on the couch as Nathan kissed her and fingered the buttons on her blouse and the rounded curve of her breast that escaped. Timidly she pressed her hands into his back and tried to get into it.

But her heart wasn't there.

"Hey Nate…" she said in between kisses.

"Mm?" he said. She could feel his hardness poking her.

"Not right now?" she suggested. Suddenly it occurred to her that if Nathan wanted to do it right then, it really wasn't her choice. _"Why do I have to keep thinking those things?"_ she said desperately to herself.

"Uh, okay. So do you want to go get something to eat?" he asked.

"Not really. I'm not actually feeling that well, so…" she said. She winced. It was the oldest trick in the book.

"I'll see you later. Uh, Haley?" he said. He looked as nervous as he'd looked the day he'd caught him surfing internet porn.

"Yeah?" she asked, as she straightened her blouse.

"You still have your ring?" he asked. Haley looked up sharply.

"What?" she demanded.

"Your ring… I thought…" he said.

"Yeah. Of course," she said. Both wondered if she was lying.

"No reason. I just thought that maybe…" he began again.

"Nathan, we'll talk about this when I'm feeling later, okay?" she suggested. He nodded and left.

Taylor let out a short gasp as she walked in the door of her home and found Nathan Scott, walking in as though he owned the place.

"Hey," she said, suddenly feeling self confident.

"Hey Taylor," said Nathan.

"You look all grown up," she commented.

"I am all grown up. You too," he said. He smirked.

"It happens. How's my little sister?"

"I'm sure she'll tell you all about it," he said.

"I look forward to it. I hope I'll see you around, Nate," she said, as she slipped past him.

"You too," he said, half to himself as she exited the room.

Confused and weary, Nathan decided to take the stairs. Haley would never know it, but if she had she would have thanked her stars that he didn't choose to take the elevator, where another Scott boy was coming up.

Or, as she was more rapidly coming to think of him, a Scott _man._

"Haley?" called out Lucas. She had moved to the kitchen, and he heard the tap running in there. He walked over and stood, leaning against the doorframe, watching her wash the dishes, wondering why she bothered. Wondering about more than that.

"Haley?" he said again. She swung her long hair over her shoulder and looked at him, smiling slightly.

"Hey loser," she said fondly. Covertly she pulled down the sleeve of her shirt to cover the pink plastic beads.

"You want to do something tonight?" he asked.

"Sorry, I can't. Taylor's gone tonight so I'm going to put in some Gabby bonding time. I'd invite you, but…" Haley trailed off.

"It's okay. I'll go to the Jagielski's, they'll generally feed me," said Lucas.

"Will Brooke be there?" asked Haley primly. Lucas shrugged.

"You have got to get it into your head that I'm not in love with her. I have a date tomorrow," said Lucas. Haley nodded, her pretty face stiff.

"Right, you said before. Have fun," she said, scrubbing vigorously at a casserole dish.

Haley's back was turned away from him again, leaving his eyes free to stay on her. He didn't understand. Their renewed friendship had started off with so many complications, but he'd really thought that it could be simple again. As it had been in the days before the sojourn into the other world. That's what he really wanted.

Wasn't it?

"You okay?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I be? Have fun," said Haley. He nodded curtly and left.

Haley abandoned the dish when she heard the front door close. Nothing was right anymore. Her once joyfully renewed love with Nathan had already turned sour. Her easy friendship with Lucas was already beginning to show wear. Haley wondered if it was really a wonder that her and Nathan didn't work anymore. Hadn't he attracted her as a bad boy? But hadn't she married him when he'd become a 'good guy'? Like the only guy Haley had ever thought of for the first fifteen years of her life.

As Haley wandered back to her room, she passed the one doorway in the large apartment that they rarely used. The doorway to the roof. Reflectively she opened it and looked up. She had an idea.

Haley cooked dinner for the two of them and they ate it, fairly silently. Gabby wondered why Haley didn't try to make small talk, as she always did, but Gabby accepted it.

"Come here," requested Haley, as Gabby began to trail off to her bedroom.

"Where does that lead to?" asked Gabby, eyeing the door.

"Come on, I'll show you," said Haley, running up the stairs with Gabby at her heels.

Gabby shivered for a moment on the cold roof. They were many, many floors above street level with only a fence between them and the steep drop.

"What are we doing here?" she asked curiously. Haley nudged a laundry basket with her foot.

"This," she said.

"Water balloons?" asked Gabby skeptically, eyeing the colorfoul, water filled balloons bulging out of the basket.

"Yep," said Haley. Gabby raised a blonde eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because, Gabriela Travers, you have been rather lacking in a childhood," said Haley. Gabby puzzled over this for a moment while Haley plucked a red balloon out and threw it directly at her foster daughter's chest.

Gabby gasped as the water soaked through her shirt, and then lunged forward to grab another one while Haley dodged behind a pipe.

Haley sneaked around behind the small staircase covering structure to hit Gabby in the back, but the younger girl dodged as the balloon came by, causing it to go sailing through the air and splatter on the ground. Gabby quickly retaliated with a well aimed shot at Haley.

The two were shivering as they ran down the staircase, much later, to dry off. Gabby found towels for them both while Haley quickly located the packages of hot chocolate and began boiling water.

Taylor came in just as Gabby was going to bed, and Haley took the opportunity to call Jared with the limo.

Haley took a deep breath while she knocked nervously on the door, praying that she was truly ready for her past and her present to collide.


	18. Not Quite Forever

Chapter Seventeen: Not Quite Forever

"Haley?" said Lucas in confusion, as he answered the door.

"Hey Luke," she said. Without an invitation, as she'd always done before, she walked into his apartment and sat down.

"What's up?" he asked, the confusion still alive.

"You know nine years ago a visit like this wouldn't have made you think twice," she said. He smiled his mysterious, toying smile.

"Ten years ago," he corrected her. Haley didn't know the exact date of the drift between them, but she knew what had started it. She had chosen the wrong brother. Or at least the other brother.

"Ten. Am I interrupting anything?" she asked. He watched as she stood and glided over to the stereo.

"Since when do you bother with such details?" he asked.

"Since now. What's in here?" she asked. He glanced carelessly at his stereo as she pressed the on button.

"Uh, Ryan Adams?" he said in surprise. As the first few notes floated out he continued to stare at her, but as horrific realization came, he lunged out to shut off the machine.

"This is…" she began. She made a cynical smile as the familiar song came out. _When the Stars Go Blue_ would haunt her for the rest of her life. "You know this is what I gave up my life for? A cover of some song that never should have been a duet in the first place."

Haley's face was bitter as the song in it's original form blared.

"We can turn it off…" he said awkwardly.

"It's not worth it. It was never worth it," Haley cursed.

"You deserved a shot at your dream," said Lucas. Haley smiled unexpectedly. His words didn't affect her.

"Do you remember when we were kids together, and we taught each other how to kiss?" asked Haley. Lucas smiled.

"Yeah. You were the first girl I ever kissed," he said.

"You too. I taught you everything and then Brooke Davis got to take advantage of it," joked Haley.

Only suddenly Lucas wasn't so sure she was joking.

He stared as she turned and silently appealed to him. He stared at her long hair, her exposed skin, her beautiful eyes, all the wisdom behind them.

Neither would ever be able to remember who's lips leaned in first, but never would it matter.

All that mattered to Haley was his touch, her desire. How Luke's lips had once been unsure and gentle, how that now all they made her want to do was to strip down and seal the deal right then.

The years of friendship and platonic love slipped into their passionate kiss, making it tender and sweet. In his kiss Haley sensed not only her own tutelage, but that of what the years, the love and loss Lucas Scott had experienced.

"Haley, I can't," he said, breaking off the kiss reluctantly.

"But you want to. You've wanted to since the night on the train," she whispered. He looked reluctantly down into her eyes, afraid of what he'd see.

"You have, too," he said. He meant his words to come out as a question, but he knew the answer. She couldn't keep secrets from him. At that moment, she didn't want to.

Haley didn't know where her gestures, her words, her desires were coming from, but she followed them. Lucas couldn't help but look as she tugged down her shirt to reveal her shoulders and cleavage.

"Don't…" he said. He could hardly bring himself to say it.

"Lucas…" she breathed. She took his hand, limp, ready to follow hers and carefully inserted his hand against her breast, inside her bra.

Her free hand went down to his belt.

Their lips met again, and this time Lucas didn't stop he as she wrapped her legs around his waist and they began to shed their clothing.

Haley lay on her back on the bed, preparing herself for his mouth on hers again. She smirked as he mounted her backwards, in the position she'd never used with Nathan. He always seemed to think her too innocent for such things, but Lucas didn't worry.

As she took him in her mouth he began to service her, and she instantly realized the pleasure of what she'd never done with Nathan.

Lucas was bigger and completely different feeling from Nathan inside of her. She moaned in pleasure as he did the same.

XxxxxxX

Logic flew back to Haley as Lucas feel asleep beside her and she was left to her own devices. She'd just slept with her best friend. Her boyfriend's brother. It was so wrong, yet so right.

Somehow she managed to fall sleep beside him. They'd slept together in the same bed before, on their sleepovers growing up, the time he'd visited her in New York. Sexuality had never come into question on these many occasions. Haley had had to expect that it wouldn't be banished from them forever.

The next morning she wandered into his kitchen wearing only his discarded t-shirt.

"Hey," she said softly. He turned his head to her and smiled, handing her a cup of coffee as he did so.

"Hey. How are you?" he asked.

"Do you think that was a mistake?" she asked.

"No. I do think that it'll bring up some pretty sticky issues, however," said Lucas.

"Yeah," probably," she said. On the wrist of the hand that she reached out for the coffee with was the beaded bracelet. Lucas stared at it.

"Is that…" he asked.

"Yes," she murmured.

"But… You left it behind… Nathan has it…" stuttered Lucas stupidly.

"He gave it back," she explained.

"You're still with him."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling honestly sorry, wishing she'd never come back into contact with either.

"I just slept with my brother's girlfriend," said Lucas, looking to her for clarification.

"He's not mine anymore. I'm not his. We tried, but…"

"Not his? Haley you're wearing his bracelet! You've got that brand on your back! It's still his number!" yelled Lucas.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"I can't believe you opened this up again," said Lucas, covering his eyes with his right hand.

"Luke…" she began. He weakened. He'd always been Luke to her. "We can go there. Nathan and I are finished. I'll have it removed."

Lucas stared hard at the woman before him, appealing for his love. A woman he wanted desperately. His brother's woman.

"You two will never be finished," he said in disgust before leaving the room.


	19. The Things That Bring You Back

Chapter Eighteen: The Things That Bring You Back

"Your house is quiet," commented Gabby to Jenny as the two sat on Jenny's bed. Jenny was braiding Gabby's long red hair, and Gabby was staring at Jenny's wall.

"Weirdly quiet. Jake went to visit Uncle Nate and Uncle Luke at the basketball thing and took Benny with him. And Mom's tired again," said Jenny. Gabby nodded wisely.

"Do you know what gender they are yet?" asked Gabby, glancing listlessly out the window.

"Nope. Mom didn't want to. Don't you think that's…" Both girls gasped as a scream came from the direction of Peyton's bedroom, and were immediately on their feet.

"Mommy!" cried Jenny in alarm, when she saw her mother, crouching in pain on the bed, her arms protectively encircling her eight months pregnant stomach.

"Peyton?" said Gabby in shock, as Jenny ran to the bed, bounced onto it and gripped her mother's hand.

"Are you starting the… contractions?" asked Jenny awkwardly, looking completely lost.

"Yes," she said. She took a deep breath and seemed to relax slightly. Gabby crouched on the floor, wondering how she could help. Minutes later, Peyton's screeched in pain again.

"I'll call an ambulance," volunteered Gabby.

"No, just get a cab," argued Peyton, as she squeezed Jenny's hand again.

"What's the cab company number?" asked Gabby. The question floated in the air as Jenny's face whitened.

The door burst open behind them, and footsteps ran down the hall. They were obviously female, but it didn't stop Peyton from calling out to her husband in hope.

"Haley," said Gabby in relief. She stood up and hugged her shocked guardian.

"Gabs, what's going on?" she asked, eyeing Peyton on the bed.

"She's in labour. And the told me not to call the hospital, and Jake's not here and she's in lots of pain and I don't know what to do," moaned Gabby, the pitch of her voice steadily rising. Haley nodded and walked over to the bed and gently pried Jenny from her mother.

"Peyton, come on," said Haley, giving her hands for Peyton to grip.

"Where?" asked Peyton, as she was helped off the bed.

"The car's downstairs, we'll take you to the hospital," she said gently.

"Jake's not here," said Peyton, as the two walked slowly toward the door.

"I'll call him," promised Haley.

The five of them sped toward the hospital. Haley had called previously, and a wheelchair was waiting out front with a nurse. Peyton was wheeled in.

"Jared, take the girls back, Taylor can look after them," she said distractedly, preparing to follow Peyton. She was surprised by noises of indignation from both girls.

"Like hell. I'm not going anywhere," said Jenny stubbornly.

"Me neither," said Gabby. Haley looked frustrated, but powerless to argue.

"Fine. But I'm going to be busy, so I need you to sit still. And be… good," said Haley lamely.

"Fine. And anyway, Daddy will be here soon," said Jenny confidently, gliding out of the car after her mother, Gabby following her at a run. Haley bit her lip and felt disinclined to mention that Jake was on the other side of the country with Haley's boyfriends, and had no reason to suspect that his wife would go into labour a month early.

Haley remained in the behind with the girls, and while they sat down and began to talk, she pulled out her cell and called the number Peyton had given her.

As the phone rang, Haley glanced distractedly at the television. It was warning her that there was a massive rainstorm in southern California.

"Hello?" said Jake.

"Jake. This is Haley," she said.

"Haley James?" he echoed in surprise.

"Haley James. Um, Peyton's in labour. Can you come?" she asked anxiously. Jake cursed.

"No. Planes aren't leaving because of the storm. Tell her I'll be there as soon as I can," he said.

"Of course," she murmured.

"And Haley…" Jake's voice sounded reluctant.

"Yes?"

"Take care of her, will you?" he requested.

"I promise," she whispered, as a nurse approached her.

Haley looked nervously away as a Doctor came in and examined Peyton.

"You're doing well, Mrs. Jagielski. It won't be long now," he said.

"My husband's stuck in California," she said anxiously. The Doctor, a woman only slightly older than the two of them, frowned.

"It looks like we may have to do without him. You'll stay?" she asked, indicating Haley.

"Of course," she responded.

"Wait, you're Haley James?" said the Doctor.

"Yeah," said Haley, blushing faintly.

"I'm a fan. Is it true that you were married to that basketball player?" she asked. Haley smiled bitterly and glanced down at the bare expanse of skin on her right wrist.

"In another life," she said, smiling faintly.

Ten hours later Jenny and Gabby were sleeping in their chairs and Haley was in hospital scrubs. Jake was in California, and Peyton was ready to go.

"Come on, push Peyton," said Haley, as Peyton let out another scream.

"You would not _believe_… how much easier… it is for you to say that than for me to do it," groaned Peyton. Haley flickered a smile.

"I'll know," comforted Haley. Peyton glanced sideways at her, but in her own pain did not notice the look of anxiety and fear on Haley's face.

"Almost there, just a little further," encouraged an intern.

"Breath, Mrs. Jagielski," said the doctor. Haley grinned and felt like screaming when she heard a scream fill the delivery room, and the doctor held in her arms a red and purple bloody thing with a faint dusting of hair, screaming its lungs out.

"It's a girl!" she said. Peyton grinned faintly. "Now, you have ten minutes, I'm guessing."

Haley spun her head around so quickly that her eyes hurt.

"What's she talking about?" she asked nervously.

"The other one, I'm guessing," said Peyton, eyeing the baby that the nurse was cleaning off.

"You're having twins? I so didn't sign up for it," said Haley.

"I don't think I did either," smiled Peyton. Haley leaned over and kissed Peyton's forehead.

"Then I guess we'll just have to make the best of it," said Haley, as Peyton let out another look of alarm as the doctor came running.

Both women gazed down at the tiny red sleeping faces, completely identical.

"They're beautiful," said Haley.

"They are. I wish Jake was here," said Peyton quietly.

"He'll come. As soon as he can. Don't worry," soothed Haley.

"Can you get Jenny?" asked Peyton. Haley nodded and hurried off down the hall.

Taylor James was sitting upright in a hospital chair, a redhead on one shoulder, a brunette on the other. Her eyes widened when she saw Haley and she raised her eyebrows in a silent question.

"Girls. Two of them," whispered Haley. Jenny's blue eyes popped open.

"Really? Can I come?" asked Jenny, before Taylor could speak. Gabby woke up slower and raised herself into a sitting position, raising her arms to stretch them out.

"Sure. Gabby, you can look later, alright?" said Haley, as she and Jenny walked down the hall.

Haley led Jenny to Peyton's room and assured that she was sitting down on the bed before leaving to wander down the halls. Distractedly she pulled off the cap that was around her head and let her hair tumble around her sweaty shoulders.

Once again in a state of calm, Haley allowed her mind to drift back to the separate, equally difficult partings with the Scott brothers. Both so difficult because of the different feelings of love she'd had for the boys in the past and present, the different feelings of lust. The different feeling she had and always would have.

She casually strolled by Peyton's room and saw her with her three daughters, leaned against her pillows in exhaustion, her hair tied messily back, a flush of animation creeping into her cheeks.

"Haley, join us," said Peyton. Haley shook her head quickly, but smiled at the sentiment.

"I just heard from Jake. He thinks he can make it in tomorrow, but you'll probably be checked out by then," said Haley.

"That's okay. Jenny can take care of me," said Peyton bravely.

"And two babies? Taylor, Gabby and I can help... if you don't mind," said Haley. Peyton smiled.

"Thanks. That'd be great," said Peyton.

"Brooke too, maybe?" suggested Haley.

"She's in California with the guys. And not exactly a baby person."

"True. I'll leave you guys to yourselves," said Haley, exiting before either could protest.

Haley was prepared to resume her petrol of the hallway, but Taylor found her.

"So they're coming back," said Taylor, her expression searching.

"Yes."

"What are you going to tell them?" she persisted.

"About..? Honestly, I've made up my mind a thousand times about it and then changed it a thousand and one," said Haley, dropping her hand from her stomach.

"Don't worry. In fact, it sounds like we don't even have_ time_ to worry until these people hire a full time nanny," said Taylor, taking her sister's arm, engaging her in conversation and preparing to walk down the hallway.


	20. The Love You Never Expected

Chapter Nineteen: The Love You Never Expected

_Author's note: Dedicated to Davis. You could say I'm returning the favour. Get it?_

Peyton groaned in frustration as one of the babies began to cry and almost immediately set off after her sister. Distantly she could hear Jenny groaning in her sleep, and Haley springing up from the chair she'd managed to have a ten minute nap in.

"I'll take Ava, you take Davie, then we'll switch?" suggested Haley, reaching down into one of the two bassinettes and picking up a howling baby. Peyton smiled to herself.

"Haley, that one's Davie, but whatever. I'll take Ava and switch when she's done," said Peyton, immodestly taking the elder of the twins and putting her to her breast while Haley jiggled the younger and attempted to quiet her.

"And you thought that one baby was hard!" mused Haley, over Davie's screams.

"I didn't know the meaning of hard. And why are you so much better at this than me, anyway?" whined Peyton, as her daughter's screams began to still.

"I'm not. I don't have to feed, remember? And I think I got a whole four hours of sleep last night," said Haley.

"I think I was too tired that I couldn't sleep. You know?" said Peyton sleepily, Haley nodded as Ava continued to drink.

"I know. Hey, Davie's going to sleep," said Haley in surprise, gently placing her in her bassinette as Peyton finished with Ava.

The two wandered into the living room and collapsed onto the sofa after both twins finally fell asleep.

"I can't believe it's been almost a week and Jake still isn't back yet and I still can't tell them apart," mused Haley.

"Don't remind me," said Peyton.

"He'll be home tomorrow. I have to say, I'm really glad Jenny and Gabby have each other right now, when I we have so little time for them," said Haley.

"Yeah. Jenny hasn't had such a good friend since she excelerated. Haley…" said Peyton. Her more formal tone made Haley sit up straighter and lazily open her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Uh, yeah. So you know that before he left we decided we'd call one of them Ava Madison, and call the other one Davis," said Peyton.

"Right, because you wanted to call her after Brooke but Brooke wouldn't let you call her Brooke, because it would make her feel too old or something," finished Peyton.

"Something like that. Anyway, we thought we'd give Davie two names like Ava but we couldn't think of one until last night. Then Jake suggested…" Peyton faltered and cast her eyes downward. "He suggested we call her Davis Haley."

It took only seconds for Haley's eyes to fill with tears. Without Peyton having to tell her she knew that it hadn't really been Jake's suggestion to call the baby Davis Haley. It had been Peyton's, but even a softened Peyton wasn't emotional enough to admit this to Haley.

Peyton gasped when Haley reached forward and hugged her, instantly breaching the gap that had been growing for years.

"I'd be honoured," she whispered.

XxxxxxX

"Jake!" called out Peyton in the early hours of the next morning, as soon as she heard his footsteps into the hall. Haley looked on and smiled as she ran out to greet him and threw herself into his open arms before hugging her son tightly.

The two immediately proceeded to Jake and Peyton's room, where Davie and Ava were living. Haley wanted to stare as Jake's eyes smiled as he caught sight of the new additions to his family, but she knew she had to leave. It was a moment they had to have for themselves.

Haley took Gabby home that evening.

"How was it?" asked Taylor, coming in to the hall to greet them.

"Fun. They're adorable," replied Haley, hugging her big sister.

"I guess it's a good idea to get experience," said Taylor wryly.

"Don't worry, he'll come through," said Haley, as Gabby ran off to get the phone when it rang.

"If you're sure. You look like you haven't slept in days," said Taylor.

"I haven't. You'll understand, when the time comes."

"I'm sure I will.

"HALEY! PHONE!" yelled Gabby. Haley picked up the extension nearest. Taylor stared as her face paled dramatically when she answered it.

Haley's several minute conversation gave no clue as to who the caller was.

"What's wrong?" asked Taylor in concern, as Haley clicked off the phone. Haley stared at her sister, as though she'd forgotten she was in the room.

"We'll be having a visitor," she said simply.


	21. Maybe Tonight

Chapter Twenty-One: Maybe Tonight

"Where to, Haley?" asked Jared, as Haley climbed into the long black car.

"The airport," she said. He glanced at her in the rearview mirror and noticed her flushed face, the rigidness of her pose.

"A friend visiting? You look nervous," he said.

"I'm fine. My friend Chris," explained Haley, staring out the window to the busy street.

"I was hoping it would be Nathan. You've missed him, haven't you?" asked Jared. Haley paused. Had she missed Nathan? It had never occurred to her to miss him.

"No more than usual," she said, smiling tiredly.

XxxxxX

As soon as she saw Chris Kellar come down the escalator, Haley felt instantly calmer. For the first time in what had felt like weeks, she allowed her face to relax into a smile as he caught sight of her and did the same.

"Haley!" he said happily. He lifted her into the air with his hug and she laughed happily.

"Hey Chris. You look good," she said. "California treating you well?"

"It's too damn sunny all the time. And LA's all about sidekicks and UGGS," said Chris in disgust.

"Well duh. Come on, Jared's waiting," said Haley.

"Your driver?" asked Chris, cracking a smile. Haley smiled herself at his pride in her. It was him that had started it all, made her life what it was.

"Yeah. Taylor and Gabby will be at home, but you'll love them," said Haley firmly, leading him out of the airport.

XxxxxxX

"Chris, this is my sister Taylor," said Haley stiffly, feeling uncomfortable as Chris' eyes went immediately to her pregnant stomach. Most men would have stayed quiet. But Chris wasn't most men.

"Congratulations," he said. Taylor's arms tightened around her belly and she nodded swiftly, ever aware of it.

"Thanks," she said softly. Haley quickly motion to Gabby.

"And this is my foster daughter, Gabriela Travers. Gabby this is my friend Chris," said Haley.

"Nice to meet you," she said. He responded in kind, and Haley quickly ushered him to his bedroom so he could get settled.

Haley walked slowly back to the living room. Gabby had run off, probably to her room. Taylor was sitting by herself on the sofa, her head in her hands, her blonde hair streaming down.

"Hey," said Haley gently, going to sit beside her and running a comforting hand on her back.

"I'm screwed, aren't I," she said listlessly.

"We'll get through it. It might even be fun," said Haley.

"Babies need fathers too," said Taylor.

"He'll come through," said Haley confidently.

"I always thought that by the time I was thirty I'd know better than to get knocked up," said Taylor mournfully.

"It doesn't always work like that," said Haley comfortingly.

XxxxxxX

"Peyton?" called out Lucas. She came running, an infant in her arms. She wiped a smear of baby food off her cheek and smiled at him.

"Luke, you're finally here," she said happily, walking to him.

"Good to see you too. Which one's this?" he asked, examining the almost translucent hair on her head.

"Davie. AJ's napping," said Peyton, looking closely at the baby to verify it.

"AJ?" asked Lucas in confusion.

"Ava Madison Jagielski. AJ. How was your trip? How's Nate?" asked Peyton in concern, frowning slightly as Ben ran into the room and launched himself at her. He was suffering from the lack of attention. It was obvious.

"She's gorgeous. And Nate's fine, under the circumstances," said Lucas. Peyton nodded understandingly and absently jiggled the baby in her arms.

"Can I take her?" asked Lucas, holding out his arms. Peyton handed Davis to Lucas, wrung out her hands and put her arms around her young son.

"Have you been to Haley's?" asked Peyton.

"Not going to happen, Pey," he said firmly.

"I think it's fairly obvious that her and Nathan are history. And that you love her," said Peyton gently.

"Not like that." Lucas looked up as Jenny walked in, holding Ava on her hip.

"Mommy, she's awake now," said Jenny, going to kiss her Uncle's cheek.

Peyton examined Lucas' face as he talked to Jenny. His usually smooth face had a slight scruffiness to it, that which he hadn't had since Tree Hill days. He had just noticeable bags under his eyes. He looked terrible. Peyton had gotten to know Haley again, and she understood why. On whatever level, the two had been made for each other.

As Davis began to doze her off, Lucas gently placed her in the bassinette. As he did so, his eyes grazed the magazine on the coffee table.

"What's this?" he asked, picking it up. On it's cover was the face that he knew better than any other. He stared into her deep brown eyes before reading the caption, and seeing the man who accompanied her.

"Bastard," he muttered under his breath. He looked in disgust at the picture of Haley walking down the New York street, her hand in Chris Kellar's.

Peyton slowly approached him, stuck her hands in her back pockets and stared at him. For a second she looked like teenage Peyton, the girl he'd once known.

"Nathan lost her to him. You lost her to Nathan. They're both effectively out of the running," said Peyton. He didn't appear to hear her. He needed a stronger message. "Go get her."

Lucas glanced up at Peyton and back down at the woman he-what was Haley to him? Boundaries had been crossed so many times, and re-crossed, that it seemed impossible to define. At least it had finally occurred to her that she was in fact a woman.

Lucas firmly kissed her forehead before running out. He didn't know he'd succeed. He did know however, that he'd never forgive himself if he didn't at least try.

As he drove over in the cab, it occurred to him that Chris Kellar would be there.

Lucas ran into the elegant lobby and up many floors in the elevator before bursting into her apartment. He'd pictured an ideal setting: Haley waiting for him, Haley alone, Haley period. He missed her. He didn't expect what he saw.

Nathan and Chris standing ten feet apart from each other, looking liable to yell "Draw!" at any moment. A slightly pregnant Taylor standing with Haley at the door, looking horror struck.

Lucas walked in until he, Chris and Nathan formed a perfect three pointed triangle. Nathan turned forty-five degrees to face both of them.

"What are you doing here?" asked Lucas of his younger brother. Nathan's jaw tightened slightly and his blue eyes flashed.

"What are you doing here?" he challenged.

"I thought you were over," said Lucas in confusion, looking at Haley, who's eyes were on him and not Nathan. Nor Chris.

"It depends on what you mean by over," said Nathan. His eyes landed on everyone in the room: Lucas, Taylor, Chris, Haley. He looked back to Lucas. "And who you mean, I guess."


	22. There Will Be An Answer

Chapter Twenty-Two: There Will Be An Answer

"Is it yours?" asked Lucas, his teeth clenched. Four sets of eyes swiveled to Taylor James, who dropped her gaze and sighed almost inaudibly. Nathan glanced at Taylor.

"Yeah," he said. Lucas stared at Haley, expecting shock, horror, hurt beyond description. Either she'd already experienced her hurt, or what had happened between her and Lucas had been enough for her to finally get over her first love.

"Someone mind explaining what's going on?" asked Chris in annoyance. Nathan glared and clenched his fists, but didn't move from his spot. Taylor looked up at him, and Lucas analyzed her for a second. Was she in love with him?"

"Shut up, Chris," said Haley and Lucas. They met gazes but looked down immediately.

"Boy marries girl, boy divorces girl, boy sleeps with sister, girl sleeps with brother, sister gets pregnant, girl gets hurt again," said Taylor quietly. Haley squeezed her sister's hand.

Lucas looked away from Haley for a moment to see Nathan staring at Taylor's stomach, fascinated by it despite the horror of the situation.

"It's a girl," she said quietly. For a moment, she dared to look up at Nathan, a glimmer of hope behind her eyes. He nodded.

"She'll be perfect," he said. She looked suddenly vulnerable as he walked toward her and placed a hand on her stomach. Lucas kept his eyes on Haley. She kept her eyes on him.

Chris looked between the two couples, which weren't really couples, and suddenly he felt lonely. Haley used to be around for him to be lonely with. It didn't look as if she would be for much longer.

Haley walked over to Lucas, past Chris, and looked appealingly at him. She moved in close as he put an arm around her. They watched as Taylor and Nathan spoke in whispers for a moment.

"Do you want to get married?" asked Nathan. Obviously he felt duty bound to ask the question, but his words weren't emotionless. For a second, Taylor looked happy. It was such a ridiculously ideal solution. He'd broken her sister's heart, her sister had broken his. They were unequivocally over.

"God no," she said, laughing. Haley smiled in relief to see her big sister back to her normal self-before she realized that Taylor had turned him down and that things would only get harder.

"What?" murmured Haley in disbelief. Lucas looked down at the women in his arms, who'd spent so many years there, within his reach, willing his love. For a moment he wished Chris, Taylor and Nathan a thousand years away.

For a moment, Nathan looked coldly back at her before his gaze moved to Chris.

"Did you come back to be with her?" asked Nathan.

"Trust me, it's not _your_ girl that I want," said Chris in amusement. Haley flashed him a grateful smile as his gaze flickered to Lucas. _Ah._

Haley pulled on Lucas' hand and pulled him backward into the elevator as Nathan leaned down and kissed Taylor, her stomach between them.

"If you think really hard… this is how it all started," she said, laughing to herself. Lucas joined her, and their combined laughter filled up the elevator.

"More or less," he agreed.

"So let me get this straight. You told Nathan you slept with me but he didn't bother to return the favour and tell you that he'd impregnated Taylor?" asked Haley. Lucas nodded.

"And we thought our high school days were dramatic…" he said.

"Don't be scorning our high school days. They were pretty special," she said wistfully. She looked down, but Lucas took her chin with his pointer and middle fingers and angled it up to look into his eyes.

"Do you miss them, Haley?" he asked.

"I used to think I did. But I can't help wishing I'd done them differently," she said.

"We wouldn't have worked together back then," he said. She smiled.

"You always could read me like he never could," she said, wrapping an arm around his neck and leaning up.

Her face turned away from his as the elevator stopped abruptly as the door opened. Haley met eyes with one of the few people who truly hated her.

"Brooke," said Lucas weakly. She swiftly analyzed the situation: her one time love in the arms of the woman who'd betrayed his brother.

"I'd tell you to get a room, but at least you sprang for an elevator," she said in disgust.


	23. Skeletons in the Closet

Chapter Twenty-Three: Skeletons in the Closet

Haley wilted under Brooke's scrutinizing gaze, somehow a thousand times more powerful than it had been in their high school days.

"Brooke, what are you doing here?" asked Lucas in amazement.

"Chris called me," she said simply, crossing her arms and leaning against the elevator door as it began to rise with the three of them inside of it.

"You and Chris are still in touch?" said Haley in amazement.

"One could say the same of you two," replied Brooke, raising a perfect eyebrow.

Haley looked up at Lucas and studied him for a moment. Their long years of disconnect suddenly seemed light years behind them.

"Except that Lucas and I did, at some point, have a relationship," said Haley, her eyes narrowing.

"Who's to say we didn't?" she asked cattily.

XxxxxxX

"So, are you guys are together?" asked Chris, after Nathan and Taylor had stopped kissing and an awkward silence had descended.

"I guess," said Taylor, shrugging her shoulders. Nathan took her hand.

"Uh, okay," he said.

"Hey, do you want to move in?" asked Taylor of Nathan.

"Haley owns this place," reminded Nathan.

"Oh, right. So we'll go to your place," she decided. He nodded his head agreeably.

Brooke entered Haley's apartment and looked at Taylor and Nathan in disgust. They looked so annoyingly coupley. She turned to Chris.

"Hey. You're back," she said.

"Wonder why?" he asked, smirking.

"Wait a sec. Taylor, Haley told me to tell you she left. She's gone off somewhere," said Brooke.

"With Lucas?" asked Nathan.

"Hi, jealous. Uh, no. They went off separately. She's by herself," said Brooke, turning back to Chris.

XxxxxxX

Haley rolled open her window as she entered Tree Hill, North Carolina, letting it's familiar smell off freshly cut grass wash over her. The town hadn't changed. The boy dribbling a basketball down the sidewalk could have just as easily been her. The simply dressed girl beside him could have been her. Haley smiled as they stopped to kiss and they faded out of view.

She smiled at all the businesses. Everything was brand named in Manhattan. From Prada to Blockbuster. Here it was all "Pierson's Pharmacy". "John's Grocer." "Karen's Café."

The bell above her head jangled as she stepped into her the café. It had been ten years. It felt like a lifetime. She peered cautiously around. Deb Scott was at the counter talking with Keith. There was a couple sitting in the counter, a few people working on computers.

Karen saw her at the same moment she saw Karen. The older woman dropped her notepad on the counter and cautiously walked over.

"I thought I'd be seeing you," she said.

"After ten years?" asked Haley in surprise.

"Well, you're a little late. Lucas told me what's been going on. I was hoping you'd return to the source. Do you want to talk?" asked Karen.

"No, not if you already know. I have to clear my head," explained Haley. Karen nodded and in a moment she was gone again.

Haley completely bypassed her own house, and the apartment, and moved on to somewhere far less familiar.

"Haley?" asked Dan Scott in confusion as she knocked on the door. For a moment, she was proud. It was difficult to catch Dan off guard. In a moment he was smirking again.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm not going to marry Nathan," she said.

"Of course you're not. My son finally knows better. He's never going back to those dark days," said Dan confidently.

"Sure, whatever. What I was going to say is that I'm not going to marry Nathan because I'm going to marry Lucas," she said, suddenly quite sure of it. "Oh, and by the way, Nathan's knocked up my big sister. And it's been really nice seeing you."

Haley turned and walked away proudly. She'd been waiting for ten years to have something to rub in his face, and now she'd had two things.

XxxxxxX

Chris and Brooke were gone by the time Gabby suddenly came home from school.

She gasped in surprise when she saw Taylor and Nathan kissing in the entry way. She'd gotten as used to the fact that he'd disappeared from all of their lives as she'd gotten used to the slight bump on Taylor's stomach.

"Oh, hey Gabby," said Taylor, finally noticing her.

"Hey," she said slowly.

"Uh, you know Nathan? He's not cheating on Haley, I promise," explained Taylor. Gabby smiled a half smile at her guardian.

"Are you moving?" asked Gabby, noticing the cardboard boxes.

"Yes," said Taylor. She looked at Nathan and raised her eyebrows. He shrugged.

"You can come, if you want," offered Taylor. Gabby looked suspiciously between them.

"What about Haley?" she asked.

"Haley's going to stay here. I think she's going to get married. But that's not what I meant. Nathan and I will adopt you, if that's what you want," explained Taylor. For a second, Gabby considered throwing herself into Taylor's arms. But that would be far too clichéd for her tastes. So she simply nodded and shrugged and hoped they'd get the message.

XxxxxxX

Lucas smiled as Haley crawled into his bed the next day, pale with exhaustion.

"Hey, where'd you go? Even Brooke was a bit worried," he said in concern, stroking her hair when she dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"I went back home. They all kind of think we're going to get married," she said slowly.

"Well then, I guess we'll have to, to save ourselves from embarrassment," he said.

"Tomorrow, when I'm actually awake, I'm going to expect a far better proposal. It's funny, how you're the first boy I ever kissed and Taylor was Nathan's first time. It's like we're all ending up back where we started," she said. She rolled over until she was on top of him.

"I'm sure I'll think of something. I love you," he said suddenly, as she looked like she was about to drop off to sleep.

"I love you too. And I missed you," she said sleepily.

"When, last night?" he asked.

"No. For the last ten years," explained Haley, locking eyes with him before hers fluttered closed.


	24. Epilogue

Chapter Twenty-Five: Epilogue

By the time Taylor went into labour, Haley was pregnant with her first child and had once again become Haley Scott.

Larissa Maxine James-Scott was born nine hours later.

Seamus Nathan Scott was born nine months later, to Lucas and Haley.

The relationship between the two was a constant source of debate. They were some kind of freakishly linked cousins, as Taylor so eloquently put it.

Ava Madison and Davis Haley were christened soon after, in a ceremony that Brooke behaved very kindly toward even Haley in.

Taylor and Nathan lived their lives together but never had more children, though Haley and Lucas had several. Next came Leah Taylor, who was followed by William Lucas.

It took a while for Haley to accept Nathan and Taylor, and to accept Lucas as Nathan's successor, but it all worked out in the end. Why wouldn't it? She'd spent the first sixteen years of her life with Lucas, how different could the last fifty be?

Really, what more was there to it than shopping for CDs and playing mini-golf?

_The End_

1


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